European Health Data Space: How Can We Make Data Governance Models More Patient-Centric?

The COVID-19 crisis has been an eye-opener for many stakeholders, especially national governments, and has revealed that sharing health data is essential for enabling positive health outcomes and more sustainable health systems in Europe. However, the crisis has also exposed a number of key challenges that stand in the way of digital health realising its full potential in the EU. Member States have entrusted the European Commission to create a framework for enabling an European Health Data Space. For this to be successful it would need to get ‘buy in’ from the most important stakeholders: patients.

One week after the German Presidency’s High-Level Conference on Digital Health 2020 – EU on the move, APCO hosted a webinar aimed at providing concrete recommendations to the European institutions on how to take their vision forward. As such, the discussion will focus on what is needed to establish a patient-centred governance model. Topics for discussion included:

• Technical and structural enablers for the development of digital-driven healthcare in the EU
• Patient rights and security with respect to data use and re-use in the EU
• Equal access to the future European Health Data Space across the EU

We were delighted to hear the contributions of:

• Andrzej Rys, Director for Health Systems, Medical Products and Innovation, DG SANTE, European Commission
• Gözde Susuzlu, Project Coordinator, European Patients Forum and in charge of the patient-led initiative Data Saves Lives
• Cornelia Kutterer, Senior Director, Rule of Law & Responsible Tech, European Government Affairs, CELA Microsoft
• Moderated by Michal Boni, former MEP, former Minister of Labour and Social Policy and former Minister of Administration and Digitisation of Poland.

Watch the webinar here:

APCO Alum Daniel Benjamens coauthored this post.