Europe, we have a problem! Challenges to health data-sharing in the EU

E-medical documentation is becoming an increasingly important tool that the European Commission recognizes and puts on the policy agenda, and it is expected to be created in the next few years. The main objectives of the EU Health Data Space Framework are to make the health sector more efficient and to advance scientific research in telehealth. One major hurdle is the way to ensure that it is used for the common good, but in the opinion of health professionals, this requires proper consideration of trust, ethics, and safety. For example, e-prescription will be a useful tool, but there are open questions about reimbursing cross-border costs. The potential danger and risks are that the use of eHealth data will affect the general rights of patients, especially the right to privacy and confidentiality under the European Charter of Patients' Rights and the General Data Protection Regulation. We are faced with the fact that not all countries have a national contact point for cross-border healthcare and the Regulation on Electronic Identification, Authentication and Trust Services (eIDAS). This ensures secure access to health data where patients should see who has visited their data in the hospital system or other health platforms, and in addition, may deny access to third parties. It remains challenging to receive reports from several EU countries to the Ombudsman for patients who can make visible data only to themselves through ID-certified health portals, but despite this, the hospital does not have this data and continues to use all the data.