The nonprofit MIDATA cooperative provides a novel trust-promoting governance framework and operates a secure IT platform for patient/citizen-controlled data access and participation in medical and public health research. In this way, MIDATA provides a link between healthcare and medical research. Citizens/patients actively combine data recorded by smartphones with their medical data, enabling a novel and innovative paradigm of patient- and citizen-centered outcomes research. MIDATA acts as the neutral fiduciary of individuals’ data and consent of use.