Towards Gender-Sensitive Health Data Infrastructures: Interoperability Challenges and Design Implications for Biomedical Engineering
- 1Institute for Medical Informatics and Biometry, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus, TUD Dresden University of Technology,Dresden, Germany
Abstract
Sex and gender differences significantly influence health outcomes, yet they remain insufficiently represented in clinical datasets and digital health infrastructures. This paper synthesizes existing literature and current interoperability frameworks, including national initiatives such as the German Medical Informatics Initiative (MII) and emerging European developments like the European Health Data Space (EHDS). Three major challenges are identified: semantic limitations in representing sex and gender concepts, structural gaps in interoperability frameworks and data models, and operational deficiencies in data collection and reuse. These limitations propagate into downstream applications, particularly artificial intelligence systems, leading to biased models and reduced generalizability. The paper discusses how extensions of interoperability standards such as HL7 FHIR, enrichment of core datasets, and improved metadata and governance frameworks can support more inclusive biomedical technologies. Addressing these challenges is essential for ensuring equitable, robust, and clinically meaningful data-driven innovation.
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BibTeX
@article{eveline2026towards,
title = {{Towards Gender-Sensitive Health Data Infrastructures: Interoperability Challenges and Design Implications for Biomedical Engineering}},
author = {Prochaska Eveline and Henke Elisa},
journal = {Current Directions in Biomedical Engineering},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1515/cdbme-2026-0269},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1515/cdbme-2026-0269},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Towards Gender-Sensitive Health Data Infrastructures: Interoperability Challenges and Design Implications for Biomedical Engineering
AU - Prochaska Eveline
AU - Henke Elisa
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/26
JO - Current Directions in Biomedical Engineering
DO - 10.1515/cdbme-2026-0269
UR - https://doi.org/10.1515/cdbme-2026-0269
AB - Sex and gender differences significantly influence health outcomes, yet they remain insufficiently represented in clinical datasets and digital health infrastructures. This paper synthesizes existing literature and current interoperability frameworks, including national initiatives such as the German Medical Informatics Initiative (MII) and emerging European developments like the European Health Data Space (EHDS). Three major challenges are identified: semantic limitations in representing sex and gender concepts, structural gaps in interoperability frameworks and data models, and operational deficiencies in data collection and reuse. These limitations propagate into downstream applications, particularly artificial intelligence systems, leading to biased models and reduced generalizability. The paper discusses how extensions of interoperability standards such as HL7 FHIR, enrichment of core datasets, and improved metadata and governance frameworks can support more inclusive biomedical technologies. Addressing these challenges is essential for ensuring equitable, robust, and clinically meaningful data-driven innovation.
SN - 2364-5504
ER -