Call for Participation in Universal Health Data Schemas for Privacy-Preserving AI Community Group

The Universal Health Data Schemas for Privacy-Preserving AI Community Group has been launched:

The mission of this group is to define a universal, modular, and interoperable set of data schemas for health information. Our goal is to enable the aggregation and utilization of data for medical research and AI training through privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) like Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs), while ensuring patient control and consent via Verifiable Credentials (VCs).

Scope and Problem Statement

The development of robust medical AI is hampered by siloed, non-standardized, and sensitive health data. Current data formats are incompatible across institutions, and privacy regulations prevent the sharing of raw data, creating a significant barrier to collaborative research. This group will address this by creating schemas that transform health data into standardized, verifiable, and privacy-preserving assets.

Key Deliverables

• A core set of modular, extensible Verifiable Credential schemas for common medical data types (e.g., lab results, imaging reports, prescriptions, diagnoses)
• Best practice guidelines for issuing these VCs from trusted sources (e.g., hospitals, clinics)
• Specifications for generating Zero-Knowledge Proofs from these VCs to enable privacy-preserving queries and analytics
• Use cases and implementation patterns for federated learning and AI model training using the proposed schemas and ZKP protocols

In order to join the group, you will need a W3C account. Please note, however, that W3C Membership is not required to join a Community Group.

This is a community initiative. This group was originally proposed on 2025-11-08 by Amir Hameed Mir. The following people supported its creation: John Kirkwood, Seva Dolgopolov, Amir Hameed Mir, Muezza Wani and Gia Tin Tang. W3C’s hosting of this group does not imply endorsement of the activities.

The group must now choose a chair. Read more about how to get started in a new group and good practice for running a group.

We invite you to share news of this new group on social media and other channels.

If you believe that there is an issue with this group that requires the attention of the W3C staff, please email us at site-comments@w3.org

Thank you,
W3C Community Development Team