On April 24, 2024, the European Commission published its Questions and Answers (Q&A) page on the European Health Data Space (EHDS).

In the Q&A, the Commission describes what the EHDS proposal establishes, the benefits of the EHDS, and its impact on other health initiatives at the European level. The Commission highlighted that the EHDS aims, together with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), to give individuals greater control over their health data and ensure security by allowing for:

• access to health data in electronic form immediately and without cost;
• the ability to share data with health professionals within the EU and across borders;
• the ability to add information, rectify errors, restrict access, and obtain information on which health professionals accessed data; and
• having certain categories of health data, such as patient summaries, e-prescriptions, images and image reports, laboratory results, and discharge reports issued and accepted in a European electronic health record exchange data;
• having researchers, industry, or public institutions only access health data that do not reveal identity for specific purposes that benefit society; and
• data to only be accessed and processed in closed, secure environments, and only being able to download anonymized data.

Additionally, the Commission outlined what steps individuals can take in cases where they do not want to participate in the EHDS.

You can read the Q&A here.