Now you can access your health data throughout Europe. The Strasbourg Parliament gave the green light to the establishment of the European Health Data Space with 445 yes votes and 142 no votes. In case of transfer from Italy to another country, the data can be transmitted securely to healthcare professionals in the destination country. The amount of data will be a great boost for new projects, for example on rare diseases. Times? The provisional agreement has yet to be formally approved by the European Council. Then it must be published in the Official Journal of the EU and will come into force twenty days later. The regulation will apply two years later, with some exceptions, including primary and secondary use of data categories, which will apply 4 or 6 years later, depending on the category.
Electronic health records would include patient reports, electronic prescriptions, medical images and laboratory results. The EU regulation will also allow data to be transmitted securely to healthcare professionals in other European countries with the MyHealth@EU platform, for example when citizens move to another country. In time they will also be available throughout the EU diagnostic imaging reports, laboratory results and hospital discharge letters which will then be integrated into the complete medical record. The exchange of electronic prescriptions and patient health profiles is open to all European countries. There will be strong privacy protections regulating how and for what purpose sensitive information is shared. Patients will have to be informed every time their data is accessed and will have the right to request the correction of incorrect data.
According to Annalisa Tardino, co-rapporteur of the Commission on Civil Liberties, in the note from the European Parliament, “the Health Data Space will improve everyone's access to healthcare. In the future, doctors will be able to be authorized to access medical records and laboratory results of their patients in other regions or even in other EU Member States, saving money and resources and providing better care. Even if we would have preferred even more incisive measures – he concludes – we managed to find a position that can be accepted by the majority”.
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