The Trusted Third Party for Implant Register and Health Data (VIG) at the Robert Koch Institute was established as a trust center[1] based on the task assigned to it in the Implant Register Act (IRegG, entered into force on 01.01.2020). Additionally, the VIG department has also taken on the role of trust center in other medical data networks on the basis of legal legitimation. The legal mandate includes the establishment and operation of high-quality and secure infrastructure for the pseudonymization of medical data. Pseudonymization, i.e. the processing of identifiable information in a way that it can no longer be attributed to a data subject without the use of additional, not publicly known information, is carried out for the purpose of excluding or significantly complicating the identification of a specific person[2].

Further tasks of the VIG unit are

1. the development and application of technical procedures for the pseudonymization of person-identifying data
2. the creation and management of project-related pseudonyms for a comprehensive authorized linkage of health data (record linkage[3], as defined by the respective legal legitimation)

^{[1] The term is used in the Guidelines 01/2025 on Pseudonymisation (version for public consultation) published by the European Data Protection Board as well as the patient information of the Implant Register Germany. A synonym and often used term is ‘Trusted Third Party’.
[2] A legal definition of pseudonymisation can be found in the Guidelines 01/2025 on Pseudonymisation (version for public consultation) published by the European Data Protection Board.
[3] Record linkage refers to a process by which data records from different sources can be linked, e.g. to a uniform identifier.}