15 Mar 2024
Council and Parliament reach deal on Health Data Space
On 15 March 2024, the Council of the EU and the European Parliament reached a provisional agreement on a new law making it easier to exchange and access health data at EU level. The agreement will now need to be endorsed by both the Council and the Parliament. The European Health Data Space (EHDS) will provide researchers and policy-makers with access to specific kinds of secure health data, enabling them to tap into the vast potential provided by the EU’s health data to inform scientific research in the public interest.
Currently, cross-border access to health data varies across the EU. Under the new rules, citizens will have immediate and easy access to their digital health data wherever they are in the EU. Health professionals will be able to access the medical records of a patient when required for treatment in a different Member State, in full compliance with EU data protection rules.
The European Parliament and the Council will now formally adopt the new Regulation. It will then become applicable in different stages according to use case and data type.