
The European Health Data Space – A great opportunity for nursing research!
The European Commission proposed the plan for setting up a European health data space (EHDS) in May 2022 which aims to give access to researchers to high quality health data for enabling the development of drugs, vaccines and medical devices, and to inform healthcare delivery and improve the resilience of Europe’ healthcare systems.
Every day, a large amount of health data is being produced in the healthcare sector, inaccessible for secondary uses due to great fragmentation and very restrictive privacy policies.
According to the Commission proposal researchers, companies and institutions will require a permit from a health data access body granted to use de-identified data for approved research projects.
As stated by Susana Solís Pérez, MEP in Parliament’s liberal Renew group: “It’s important for us to reinforce the secondary use of data, how we are going to use them, given the importance they are going to have in research into new treatments for patients and at the end of the day for the competitiveness of European industry. We’re looking at one of the most important reports in the area of health we are going to have in this Parliament.”
The secondary use of health data is essential for improving the healthcare system and for boosting innovation. For nursing research have access to health data means improving research and innovation in order to ensure high quality care for patients and well-being of the entire healthcare ecosystem.
The EHDS proposed by the EU Commission is a great opportunity, don’t miss it!