The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) recommends that the safeguards of the future European Health Data Space (EHDS) should be defined now, in particular through a strong governance mechanism. This is the conclusion of a preliminary opinion published on Wednesday 18 November by this independent body.
The Common European Health Data Space is a project led by the European Commission and on which it plans to make proposals by the end of 2021. For the institution, such a structure will improve the exchange of and access to different types of health data (electronic medical records, genomic data, data from patient registries, etc.), not only to support the provision of health care, but also to support health research and policy development.
In his preliminary opinion, the EDPS refers to Article 6(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation. He considers it necessary to define the limits of what is lawful processing and compatible further processing, addressing the transparency and availability of information. The Supervisor also calls on the Commission to clarify the roles and responsibilities of the parties involved and to clearly identify the precise categories of data to be fed into the EHDS. He also calls on Member States to establish mechanisms to assess the validity and quality of data sources.
Link to the EDPS opinion: https://bit.ly/3nF9FLL (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)