EuropaBio response to the Public Consultation 'Digital Health Data and Services – The European Health Data Space'

Brussels, 29 July 2021 – EuropaBio has responded to the European Commission’s public consultation on the European Health Data Space. The European Health Data Space initiative has several aims, notably to promote the safe exchange of patients’ data, to support research on new treatments, to encourage access to and use of health data for research and policy-making, to support digital health services, and to clarify the safety and liability of artificial intelligence in health.

It is EuropaBio’s position that innovative solutions that make use of health data and digital technologies, such as those based on data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI), can contribute to the transformation and sustainability of healthcare systems, while improving people’s health and enabling personalised medicine.

Access to the harmonized collection and analysis of interoperable datasets across the EU can also help researchers working on conditions of particular unmet medical need, such as in rare diseases. An important benefit is also the capacity to conduct research based on existing health data and therefore reduce the need to test new drugs on human beings (interventional studies).

We recognize that these benefits are dependent upon a robust and trusted framework for the generation and access of high-quality data that supports innovative healthcare that improves the preventative care, treatments, and quality of life of patients. The EU citizen is central to this future, and it is essential that we invest collectively to build understanding of and trust in health data and how it will contribute to health and wellbeing in Europe.

EuropaBio strongly believes that the European Health Data Space could serve as a unique data space capable of propelling R&D in the EU to the forefront of global innovation, massively improving the attractiveness of the EU environment for public and private investment in healthcare research.

It is important for the EU to encourage the return of many research programmes and clinical trials to the EU. The EHDS represents a significant opportunity to reverse the declining trend of international research conducted in Europe.