Provisional Agreement on EHDS

EHDS Provisional Agreement: Progress towards Patient-Centred Digital Healthcare

The European Patients’ Forum (EPF) is pleased that the Council and the European Parliament have reached a provisional agreement on the European Health Data Space (EHDS). EHDS is one of the key pillars of the strong European Health Union and it will provide the essential framework for the exchange of health data to support healthcare delivery, and facilitate research, innovation, regulatory decisions, and policy making.

While we are still awaiting the final text to be published before commenting on the details, EPF is happy to learn that the co-legislators have agreed on the introduction of an opt-out mechanism for both primary and secondary uses of health data, which ensures that patients can exercise control over their most sensitive data.

We hope that the provisional agreement will demonstrate that the EHDS framework can both strengthen the rights of individuals regarding the availability and control of their electronic health data and allow a secure way for better re-use of anonymised and pseudonymised health data for secondary purposes.

We trust this agreement paves the way towards more digitalised and patient-centred healthcare systems. EPF looks forward to the final text and to continued engagement with the co-legislators in view of the final endorsement of the regulation and its implementation.