Health Information Across the Borders
In the year 2020, approximately 13.5 million Europeans were living in a different EU nation from their own nation. The level of mobility among Europeans has improved in recent years to an extent that calls for secure “border healthcare” facilities.
To attain the objective of the European Health Data Space(EHDS), an organization will attempt to discover the potential of data by enabling its exchange across the EU borders in a secure and integrated form.
As such, the European Health Data Space will be taking advantage of its two-cross-border infrastructures, which are: MyHealth@EU and HealthData@EU, the former being an operational function and the latter playing a dominant role in the process.
To comprehend their impact on patients and systems, an eHealth expert, Licinio Kustra Mano, of the Directorate General for Health and Food Safety, suggested, “MyHealth@EU will enable health professionals to access the health information required across the borders of the EU.”
It is through these tools that the medical records will be translated into the language of the healthcare profession, which will support a travelling European citizen to receive care despite the European nation they are in.
Today, ePrescriptions and Patient Summaries are already made available by MyHealth@EU services in ten different European countries, and a pilot version of HealthData@EU is likely to be set up in the coming years.
Reports suggest that creating a technological environment of data protection and security is essential and should play its role in seeking the trust of EU citizens, further leading to an enhanced willingness to share health information.
