19th Patients' Rights Day: Data Saves Lives Germany in the European Parliament on the European Health Data Space
"Listening to them, you'd think everything was perfect," I thought last week when I was a guest at the European Parliament in Brussels. Health data can save lives - if you use it wisely and share it responsibly. This is exactly what the 19th Patients' Rights Day was all about: the benefits of sharing health data for people with diseases, the healthcare system and research at EU level.
The "Active Citizenship Network", an organization that actively campaigns for citizens and patients - and for their rights. The team around Mariano Votta, Responsible for EU Affairs - Cittadinanzattiva ABS - Active Citizenship Network, had invited me to join in and also to present Data Saves Lives Germany and the findings that have come together over a good 2.5 years.
The meeting and the discussion
The 19th Patients' Rights Day 2025 was all about the European Health Data Space (EHDS), health data and the benefits for various groups - you could also call them stakeholders. So in our case: research, patients, citizens, but also prevention.
The EHDS is an initiative of the European Union that aims to enable the sharing of health data across the borders of EU member states - in order to improve care, research, prevention and healthcare systems. The implementing regulation came into force in March this year and EU member states now have until 2029 to implement the EHDS.
It was a very exciting mix of different perspectives that came together here: Members of the European Parliament, experts from research, prevention, politics, the patient communities, media representatives and the Active Citizenship Network team.
The big topic - sharing health data with all its facets. The interventions of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) such as Brando Benifei, Vyentis Povilas Andriukaitis, Tomislav Sokol, Fulvia Raffaelli, Head of Unit C1 Digital Health, DG SANTE (Directorate General for Health and Food Safety), European Commission, were interesting to hear.
We are already familiar with many of the positions, and the call for the trust of patients and citizens also came up again. Trust is needed - sharing health data is more important than ever for patients, citizens and healthcare systems. Patients get full control and all the security they need. And one statement regarding the design of the EHDS certainly left me with question marks:
"Data will not be able to be misused."
I take a critical view of that. I ask myself whether there is 100% security at all - and if so, what should it look like?
I also wondered why we always talk about patients but very rarely about citizens. Ultimately, EHDS affects us all, whether we live with a disease or are healthy. And just to be clear here, of course we have to focus on people with illnesses, as it is always so nicely put, as they are directly and more quickly affected by changes than healthy people, but ultimately the issue concerns us as a society.
In my brief intervention, which I was allowed to give, I therefore focused on the three points that were very clearly on the list of needs at Data Saves Lives Germany from the very beginning - and which have always been with us: Information, communication and participation.
We, the citizens, need to be informed about the EHDS - its benefits, risks and rules. We need competence. This competence must be expanded by communicating current events: broadly, up-to-date and regardless of whether they are positive or negative. Citizens need to know their way around - then they can actively participate. Participation is one of the keys when it comes to shaping regulations, data transfer and other issues relating to the sharing of health data.
Another topic was what you get back as a citizen when you share your data. We at Data Saves Lives Germany have already proposed the establishment of a non-profit organization in 2023, which on the one hand demands a kind of "fee" when data is retrieved, which in turn then develops programs to promote health literacy as well as digital and data literacy - so that everyone can be informed. And: the outcome of research projects with health data must be communicated quickly so that patients, family caregivers and doctors in particular can make well-informed decisions when it comes to the next therapeutic steps.
The discussion was interesting and informative. The experts next to me were:
- Prof. Johanna Blom (Professor of Biopsychology, Pediatric & Behavioral Neurosciences, University of Modena; Coordinator of the IHI Facilitate project)
- Aneta Tyszkiewicz (Director of Digital and Data Affairs, European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations - EFPIA)
- Marko Korenjak (President of the European Liver Patients Association - ELPA; Acting Director of the Public Agency of the Republic of Slovenia for Quality in Healthcare)
- Sara Farina (Assistant Physician for Hygiene, Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore; team member of the PROPHET project)
It was interesting to see how close we came to each other on the panel with the arguments, there was agreement on many points. Especially when it comes to training people. Prof. Blom made the argument that you have to start training and informing children so that they can develop skills. A point that is absolutely right and important. Also in terms of prevention, which was emphasized by Sara Farina.
We all emphasized the great need for education and skills transfer. One suggestion was that this could be left to the doctors. There was little agreement on this, because anyone familiar with the ongoing discussions about resources for doctor visits in many European countries knows that this is not an option.
"When I see my doctor, who I don't really see very often and when I do, it's for 10 to 20 minutes, I want to know more about MS and treatment options, not digitalization information. Time is tight, so is the budget, and I want my doctor to give me information about my condition and have a sensible discussion - that's the task for now."
You have to be aware of this: A visit to the doctor is often emotional, exhausting and stressful. So how should you deal with digital information? Not at all. Another thing I've learned in many interviews with people with chronic illnesses. In times like these, when resources are scarce and waiting times are long, people focus on themselves and their illness. The rest has to stay outside.
Seen in this light ...
The discussion was a valuable learning experience - for me and for DSL DE. When I think back to my first thoughts, it really does sound like a brave new world. One that is promising, one that I would like to have. Until we get there, there is an incredible amount of work to be done in many areas. For everyone.
About DSL DE
Data Saves Lives Germany is a non-profit, patient-driven project. We carry out our work within the resources available to us - objectively and independently, but not indefinitely. We are dependent on support and funding from so that we can continue to provide information, exchange formats and comprehensible content in the long term and make it accessible to as many people as possible. This is another reason why we are not always present immediately or everywhere. This makes it all the more important that we work together...
More about this?
If you are now keen to find out more, we recommend the following DSL DE resources:
- Our current DSL DE magazine, the DSL DE Kompass, a magazine in which we have brought together many perspectives from patients, experts and researchers to discuss the topic of communication.
- Our DSL DE Fachgedöns, a new glossary that we relaunched in December 2024 and in which we explain technical terms in an understandable way.
Both resources are available to download free of charge from our website. There you will also find information on events, online sessions and our channels.