Harnessing the power of #DataForHealth

Health data is key for the benefit of citizens and patients, healthcare professionals as well as our healthcare systems

Data sharing can help patients and citizens manage their health data and accessing their own data as needed. Connected medical devices can also assist patients in monitoring their own conditions, thereby empowering them to manage their own health and wellbeing.

Through health data sharing, healthcare professionals can have access to the most relevant data, directly at the point of care. This can help provide more personalised treatment, increase medication efficiency and enhance time efficiency for healthcare professionals. As a result, health data sharing can improve health outcomes and the patient’s quality of life.

Health data also contributes to health system sustainability and resilience. For instance in supporting the identification of inequalities in terms of patient access, making better decisions predicting and preventing diseases as well as addressing future pandemics or other public health threats.

Health data sharing can foster the development of cutting-edge technologies

Access to health data is essential for researchers to improve the performance of existing medical devices or in-vitro diagnostic medical devices and to develop new and innovative technologies – a benefit for everyone. Additionally, health data can provide insights to patient populations suffering from the same chronic condition and similar symptoms enabling more targeted research.

In order to harness the full power of health data for research, timely access is a pre-requisite and harmonised interoperability requirements should be adhered to – ensuring that the data is transferable, readable and usable for research.

To facilitate all of this, a clear and flexible regulatory framework is needed, fostering trust in data sharing while stimulating innovation.

Creating a balanced health data sharing ecosystem

With the European Health Data Space and the Data Act, the European Union (EU) has an unprecedent opportunity to pave the way to one of the most sophisticated regulatory frameworks for health data. Multi-stakeholder collaboration is more necessary than ever in order to turn the EU into a leading player in the health data field, and to ensure that EU citizens are benefiting from the full potential of innovation through health data.

Listen to the MedTech ON AIR episode that explains the benefits of health data for research and innovation in health technologies and how the European Health Data Space could provide what is needed to achieve the digital transformation of healthcare.

In addition, to enable innovation in the medical technology sector, it is essential that guidance is provided on the processing of health data, in line with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Alignment in terms of implementation of the GDPR throughout the EU is key as well. Other legislative initiatives in the digital domain, such as the AI Act, should be aligned with the applicable rules for medical devices and in-vitro diagnostics, too.

When such alignment is in place, it will enable the manufacturers to make devices available as quickly as possible – for the benefit of the healthcare system, healthcare professionals and patients and citizens in particular.

Read our initial reaction to the two proposed legislations here:

• Data Act & amended rules on the legal protection of databases – the view from MedTech Europe
• MedTech Europe Response to the European Commission’s call for feedback on the European Health Data Space