The Joint Action TEHDAS proposes European Health Data Space services
The recent report of the Joint Action Towards the European Health Data Space (TEHDAS) proposes services that the upcoming European Health Data Space (EHDS) could provide for secondary use of health data. These services have been designated for each step of the user journey for cross-border health data sharing.
The TEHDAS joint action helps EU Member States, and the European Commission (EC) to develop common practices for the cross-border secondary use of health data to benefit public health and health research and innovation in Europe. The goal of the Joint Action is that, in the future, European citizens, communities and companies will benefit from secure and seamless access to health data regardless of where it is stored.
– Health data offers significant opportunities for research and decision-making. At present, it is underused, especially at European level in a cross-border setting. Based on the expectations and needs of future EHDS users, we have identified a service process for the secondary use of health data that depicts the phases involved in a typical situation in which data is used – from finding the right data to publishing the results of its use. The report describes the most important services related to the different stages of the service process that each local EHDS node, including in Finland, provides to data users, says Senior Project Coordinator Helena Lodenius from CSC.
Finland is a frontrunner in enabling the secondary use of health data. Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra coordinates and CSC – IT Center for Science is one of Finnish associate partners in the TEHDAS project.