Source http://www.vbb.com/insights/corporate-commercial/corporate-commercial/new-european-commission-measures-boosting-generation-use-and-sharing-of-healthcare-data
As part of a broader initiative to increase the availability of data in the European Union, the European Commission published on 25 April 2018 a Communication “on enabling the digital transformation of health and care in the Digital Single Market, empowering citizens and building a healthier society” (COM (2018) 233 final – the “Communication”).
The Commission’s plan of action has three objectives:
- enabling citizens' secure, cross-border access to their electronic health records and creating the possibility of sharing these health records across borders;
- facilitating the use of larger data sets through a shared European data infrastructure to prevent diseases, determine personalised medical treatment and anticipate epidemics; and
- providing digital tools that enable citizens to manage their health more actively within integrated care systems.
This three-pronged approach will provide the basis for EU action in digital health over the next few years and will cover a broad range of measures that fall into these categories. The Commission cites as examples support for the exchange of e-prescriptions and electronic patient summaries; enabling the cross-border exchange of full electronic health records; voluntary coordination in sharing data and resources for disease prevention and research (witness the recent Declaration of Cooperation to access sequenced genomes); and capacity building and the exchange of innovation and best practices for healthcare authorities.
The Commission also published a staff working document that contains the findings underpinning the Communication.
