On November 18th, 70 attendees and speakers met to discuss making a fit for purpose European Health Data Space (EHDS), one of the European Commission’s priorities for 2019-2025. Our event marked the launch of EIT Health’s new Think Tank report, ‘Learning from health data use cases: Real-world challenges and enablers to the creation of the EHDS.’
The report and event are the culmination of EIT Health’s work to assist the European Union (EU) in developing the upcoming legislative framework for the EHDS. The aim of the EHDS is to improve the exchange of, and access to, health data. This will support healthcare delivery, health research and health policy making.
We examined research and analysis with our partners, looking closely at real world examples of health data use, its associated benefits, and challenges. This allowed us to create a series of recommendations for the European Commission to address challenges in access, storage, use and re-use of health data. These recommendations will help them develop innovation friendly and workable legislation that supports the EU’s political goals.
The online event was led by EIT Health’s CEO, Jan-Philipp Beck and Petra Wilson, Senior Advisor at FTI Consulting and Managing Partner at Health Connect Partners. Speakers included:
- Liam English, CEO at Bluemetrix
- Hans Hofstaat, Vice-President at Philips Research, Royal Philips on behalf of New SkyCare
- Bieke Van Gorp, Co-Founder & COO at Extra Horizon/FibriCheck
- Peter A. Fasching, Professor at the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics and Bjoern Eskofier, Head of the Machine Learning and Data Analytics Lab working at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg on behalf of DigiOnko.
These proceedings demonstrated EIT Health’s ability to make use of our expertise, network and unique position between EU institutions and real-world healthcare innovators. The diverse and engaged group of participants, and the valuable discussion generated, is testament to our role in bridging the gap between innovators and the EU.
Distilling learnings from innovators to shape how the EU develops legislation, makes innovators within our community feel heard in Brussels. Presenting the results of our thought leadership efforts allows the EU a unique insight into their needs. This report perfectly demonstrates the insights that can be generated to support evidence-based policymaking and encourage an environment which is conducive to innovation.
Ultimately, it will be patients and citizens who benefit from how this increased collaboration improves health data use across Europe.
To learn more, download ‘Learning from health data use cases: Real-world challenges and enablers to the creation of the EHDS.’
This article was first published on 26 November by EIT Health.
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