European Union Health Ministers discussed the proposal of European Health Data Space (EHDS), aimed at sharing health data in the continent on 14 June, Council for Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs in Luxembourg Meeting of,
Privacy-and the need to protect citizens’ data was an underlying subject of discussion, as it is seen as central to the project to get purchases in and support from citizens.
why it matters
While health ministers usually welcomed the proposal, many voices were revealed about its implementation. Thomas Stephen, State Secretary of the Ministry of Health in Germany, where digital health is uplifted Comparatively lessQuestions about data security.
He said, “There is one thing we should not do – we should not hand over this data to third party or other countries, which we have different values in Europe,” he said.
He said, “We have clear rules.” “We are all aware that what we want is high level of data security so that we can believe in citizens, otherwise we will not get it for EHD.”
The Estonian representative, Marten Kokak highlighted the sensitive nature of the data, which would be in the EHDS house. He said, “There are more delicate areas such as genetic data where quality control and moral aspects have special significance,” he said. “Along with data protection, people will need special attention to ensure that digital skills of people.”
Minister of State for Ireland Frank Fighan, Ireland’s public health, said what could happen when data security was not maintained. Talking about the disastrous cyber attack from the healthcare of the country in 2021, he said, “Protection of health information, especially against cyber threats, is a growing concern for the public.” He said that ensuring the safety of data should be a priority. “The public trust will be largely erased in data violations.”
Health data space takes a new approach
The EHDS proposal offers a new approach to privacy, said Mahsa Shabani, assistant professor of privacy law at Gent University. Discussion of primary use of data focuses on their power of citizens on their knowledge. But the section on the secondary use of data goes away from the consent as a criterion to make data accessible as opposed to laws such as GDPR. Instead, it focuses on whether data will be used in research being done in public or general interest.
“The general message is that there is no more preferred legal basis for sharing data for secondary use of consent data – which is quite a big step towards taking an integrated approach to deal with the way data sharing,” Shabani said.
Tuesday’s meeting was the first exchange of ideas between the ministers about the proposal but there were signs of upcoming conversations. A minister talked about the need for a proper time and technical assistance to enable countries to prepare for EHDR. For health, Maltese Minister, Chris Ferne spoke of EHD benefits for pharmaceutical and healthcare industries, when it comes to research and innovation.
He said, “We may need to have some sections of GDPR to have a registration to make it possible to maintain the protection of our patients as paramount,” he said.
This was a busy week for the European Union’s health policy, as the Commission informed the ministers on medical equipment and the rules on health technology evaluation, while the council and the Parliament Commission agreed with the proposal of the Commission. To expand Digital Covid Certificate of European Union for another year.
