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Editorials

The European Health Data Space fails to bridge digital divides

BMJ 2022; 378 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-071913 (Published 08 July 2022) Cite this as: BMJ 2022;378:e071913
  1. Robin van Kessel, assistant professor of international health12,
  2. Brian Li Han Wong, scientific community manager134,
  3. Rebecca Forman, senior health policy associate5,
  4. Jonila Gabrani, patient representative and PhD student26,
  5. Elias Mossialos, Brian Abel-Smith professor of health policy56
  1. 1Department of International Health, Care and Public Health Research Institute, Faculty of Health, Medicine, and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands
  2. 2Gravitate Health User Advisory Group, European Patients’ Forum, Brussels, Belgium
  3. 3The International Digital Health and AI Research Collaborative (I-DAIR), Global Health Centre, The Graduate Institute, Geneva, Switzerland
  4. 4Steering Committee, Digital Health Section, European Public Health Association (EUPHA), Utrecht, Netherlands
  5. 5Department of Health Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK
  6. 6Faculty of Medicine, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
  7. 7Institute of Global Health Innovation, Imperial College London, UK
  1. Corresponding author: R van Kessel r.vankessel{at}maastrichtuniversity.nl

Closer engagement with patients and the public is essential

Over the past 20 years, the European Union (EU) has strengthened its role assisting member states in public health matters through market oriented policies, such as improving cross border healthcare, facilitating common market access for medicines, and regulating tobacco products. Yet, criticisms of fragmented governance, siloed approaches to policy decisions,12 and a divided EU have emerged. Partially, this relates to member states using different strategies to monitor and contain covid-19.

On 3 May 2022, the European Commission launched the European Health Data Space (EHDS), designed as the foundation for a European Health Union.3 The aim is to improve care delivery and patients’ lives by empowering all EU citizens to control and use their personal health data in a private and secure environment, removing information barriers and creating a single market for digital health services. Even so, the EHDS might unintentionally disadvantage certain populations, including older people, refugees, those on low incomes, those living with chronic conditions, and some ethnic minority communities. Here, …

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