The European Health Data Space (EHDS) aims to create a common framework for how healthcare data is used and exchanged across the EU. In general, the ecosystem is comprised of a set of rules, common standards and practices, infrastructures and a governance framework that support this mission.
The EHDS has two main dimensions:
- Primary use of data: ensuring that individuals have easy, secure access to their own health records and can share them across borders for better care.
- Secondary use of data: enabling researchers, policymakers, and innovators to access health data (under strict rules) for research purposes such as for improving treatments, developing medicines, shaping health policies, and advancing public health.
By establishing common standards, governance frameworks, and strong safeguards for privacy, the EHDS makes health data more findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) at the European scale.
The EHDS opens up new possibilities for researchers by creating a secure, harmonized framework for accessing and (re-)using health data across Europe.
Key Advantages for researchers
- Broader and more efficient access to data: tap into datasets from multiple EU Member States, covering different populations, healthcare systems, and disease areas.
- Cross-border research opportunities: conduct studies at a European scale, improving the generalizability and impact of your findings.
- Standardized frameworks: benefit from common formats, vocabularies, and governance processes, making data more interoperable and research more efficient.
- Trusted environment: work within a legal and ethical framework that safeguards privacy and ensures data is used responsibly.
- Accelerated innovation: faster access to relevant datasets helps drive advances in personalized medicine, public health, and health policy.
The EHDS is still under development, but it represents a fundamental step toward a more connected and data-enabled health ecosystem in Europe.
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