Beacons & the importance of global genomic data sharing

Beacons present an easy-to-implement strategy for determining whether an institution has genomic data in its data set that would be useful to share.

How is sharing data through Beacon different from traditional medical practice?

In current medical practice, doctors commonly share basic, de-identified information about patients’ conditions and genetic variations in the hopes of matching a second case that could be therapeutically transformative. This practice is a long-standing tradition in the medical community but it is neither standardized nor optimized. The Beacon Project turns that informal transaction into a more efficient and effective search that can be a key initial step for learning from valuable genomic information.

What is the Beacon Project doing to mitigate the possibility and likelihood of reidentification through Beacons?

Any publica data resource containing “human derived” data has a potential for re-identification attacks, that is the identification of individuals contributing data to the resource.

Since its inception, the Beacon Project has been actively working with experts in GA4GH’s membership to address potential privacy concerns.

What do institutions commit to when they join the Beacon Network?

When an institution “lights” a Beacon, it demonstrates its willingness and ability to share data.