Griet Verhenneman

Prof. Dr. Griet Verhenneman (Doctor of Law) is a legal expert in data protection, privacy, artificial intelligence and the law at Ghent University, a member of the Department of Criminology, Criminal Law, and Social Law, and more specifically, the Institute for International Research on Criminal Policy (IRCP).

Prof. Verhenneman is a member of the board of the UGent MetaMedica platform and the i4S Business Development Center. MetaMedica facilitates interdisciplinary research and education in health law, health privacy law, and medical ethics, while i4S (Smart Solutions for Secure Societies) is a multidisciplinary economic valorization platform focused on crime, security, technology, digitization, and privacy. In her research, she focuses primarily on the legal and ethical challenges to the protection of different types of (sensitive) data. She teaches i.e. Artificial Intelligence, Law and Ethics, Data Protection Law and Information- and source criticism.

Additionally, Prof. Verhenneman continues to be involved in teaching, training, and policy-making in hospitals. She is actively involved in the Data Access Committee of Ghent University Hospital, contributing to discussions on the use of real-world data for healthcare, quality improvement, and scientific research, and she is Special Visiting Lecturer at the Department of Public Health and Primary Care, KU Leuven, teaching data protection to medical specialists in training. Since 2007, Prof. Verhenneman has built extensive expertise in data privacy and regulatory frameworks with over 17 years of experience as an (affiliated) legal researcher and/or lecturer at CiTiP, KU Leuven (2007-2024), over 5 years of experience as Data Protection Officer at the University Hospital Leuven (2018-2023) and 3 years of experience as external expert for the Belgian Data Protection Authority (2022-2025).

Domains of expertise

  • Privacy
  • Data protection
  • Legal aspects of AI
  • eHealth

Selected projects & research platforms

The METAMEDICA platform (metamedica.ugent.be) is aimed at facilitating interdisciplinary academic research and integrated education in health law, health privacy law and medical ethics. METAMEDICA aims to support patients, clinicians, policy makers, legal scholars, ethicists, lawyers and other stakeholders confronted with  medical innovation and role changes in healthcare, with the proliferation of health related data and with new models to process and protect these data.

Key scientific and digital developments lead to role-changes in healthcare, the proliferation of health-related data and new data protection and research data management frameworks. In view of these evolutions, the Metamedica Platform conducts and facilitates interdisciplinary academic research and provides integrated education in health privacy, health law and biomedical ethics relevant for patients, clinicians, policy makers, lawyers, ethicists, and other stakeholders. Particular topics of interest include predictive genetic research, precision medicine, trustworthy AI, big data, and electronic health records.

The three steering members represent three faculties at Ghent University. Tom Goffin, associate professor in Health Law, represents the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Griet Verhenneman, assistant professor in Health Privacy Law represents the Faculty of Law and Criminology and Heidi Mertes, associate professor in Medical Ethics represents the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy.

Selected publications

  • Verhenneman, Griet (2025) “AI and Healthcare Data”, in: Smuha NA, ed. The Cambridge Handbook of the Law, Ethics and Policy of Artificial Intelligence, Cambridge Law Handbooks, Cambridge University Press, 306-321.
  • Verhenneman, Griet (2020) The Patient, Data Protection and Changing Healthcare Models, The impact of e-health on informed consent, anonymisation and purpose limitation, Intersentia Ltd, Cambridge, 405.
  • Verhenneman, Griet, Claes, Kathleen, Derèze, Jean-Jacques et al. (2020),
    How GDPR Enhances Transparency and Fosters Pseudonymisation in Academic Medical Research, European Journal of Health Law, 21, 1, 35-57.

Work details