The third plank of the data package, which was presented on 25 April, concerns the health sector. In the communication, the Commission announces its short-term plans to promote the sharing of health data.
The communication is based around three axes, summed up the Commissioner for the Digital Economy and Society, Mariya Gabriel. It aims to ensure that a sick patient's notes follow him or her abroad, to encourage the member states to work together to bring their data processing capacities closer together and to promote new technologies, such as apps, to emphasise prevention, she continued.
The document, some 15 pages in length, follows on from the conclusions of the Council of 8 December on health in the digital society (2017/C 440/05). It stresses the value of data and the importance of making them interoperable.
Specifically, the Commission undertakes in the document to re-examine the directive on the application of patients' rights in terms of cross-border healthcare (article 14) in order to define the role of the "online health" network and to clarify the rules applicable to cross-border transfers of data. It also announces its intention of presenting a recommendation on the technical terms and conditions for the exchange of electronic medical records in the EU and setting in place a voluntary coordination mechanism to share data and prevention and research infrastructure in personalised medicine.
It is worth noting that the first exchanges of electronic prescriptions and online medical records are scheduled to go live in eight EU countries in the course of this year and that many other countries (22) are expected to follow suit by 2020. The Communication can be consulted at: https://bit.ly/2Ff8hJ9 . (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)