What is digital health (eHealth)?
Digital health is a set of tools and services that use information and communication technologies (ICTs) to support and improve all stages of healthcare, from prevention and diagnosis to treatment, monitoring, and management of health conditions.
In the EU, eHealth is recognised as a vital instrument in:
- advancing healthcare efficiency
- enhancing the quality of care
- expanding equitable access to services
- empowering citizens to take a proactive role in managing their health
- supporting healthcare professionals in their daily work
This multidisciplinary field gathers healthcare professionals, researchers, policymakers, and technologists, who collaborate to harness innovation for better health outcomes and more sustainable healthcare systems.
Current state of digital health in the EU
The Cross-Border Healthcare Directive (2011/24/EU), adopted in 2011, ensures continuity of care for European citizens across borders. This means citizens can access healthcare services in other Member States under conditions similar of their countries.
The Directive enables Member States to exchange health data, securely, efficiently and interoperably , providing the foundation for safer and higher-quality Cross-Border healthcare.
Article 14 of the Directive on digital health established the eHealth Network – a voluntary network connecting national authorities responsible for eHealth across Member States. The eHealth Network supports cooperation, trust, and the development of shared guidelines and standards to advance the health data exchange across borders.
Currently, two electronic Cross-Border health services – ePrescriptions and Patient Summaries – are being introduced in all EU countries. Citizens can easily view the services already active under MyHealth@EU, a centralised platform to make interoperability easier and to exchange health data across borders.
The access to health data across the EU is currently fragmented. Health data is collected and stored by healthcare providers and institutions in different formats, making it difficult for individuals and professionals to access and share it. This lack of interoperability causes:
- limited patient access to their health data
- healthcare professionals face delays in receiving a complete medical history, particularly across borders
- researchers and policymakers have restricted access to anonymised health data for innovation, research, and policymaking, limiting advancements in healthcare.
While some Member States have adopted digital health systems, others continue to rely on paper records and disconnected digital systems. A new Regulation on the European Health Data Space entered into force, to address these issues as one of the central building blocks of the strong European Health Union.
What is the future state of digital health in the EU?
The European Health Data Space (EHDS) is a health-specific and governance framework designed for sharing health data across borders within the European Union, establishing clear rules, common standards, and practices along with digital infrastructures like MyHealth@EU and HealthData@EU aiming to improving healthcare.
The EHDS will improvethe use of electronic health data by patients, researchers, innovators and policy makers accelerating and improvingpatient care, patient safety, statistics and the or regulatory processes.
The EHSD is the first common EU data space in a specific area to emerge from the European strategy for data.
EHDS in a Nutshell – what is it about?
The three main objectives of EHDS are to:
- empower individuals to take control of their health data and facilitate the exchange of data for the delivery of healthcare across the EU (primary use of data);
- provide a consistent, trustworthy, and efficient system for reusing health data for research, innovation, policy-making, and regulatory activities (secondary use of data);
- foster a genuine single market for electronic health record systems (EHR systems).
The primary use of health data is the use of new data, collected and stored in a database, which can later be reused for other purposes known as secondary use.
The Regulation sets clear rules for using health data for better healthcare delivery, research, innovation, and policymaking.
The new rules will harness the potential offered by the safe and secure exchange, use, and re-use of health data, while ensuring full compliance with the EU's high data protection standards. Citizens will have quick and easy access to their digital health data throughout the EU.
Health professionals will access patient's medical records when required for treatment also in a different Member State, allowing evidence-based decision making, while fully complying with EU data protection regulations (primary use of data).
The EHDS creates a strong legal framework for reusing health data for research, innovation, and public health purposes (secondary use of data). The data will help:
- develop life-saving treatments
- develop personalised medicines
- improve crisis preparedness, under strict data security
- improve access conditions
- apply fundamental rights.
In addition, the goal is to improve the internal market by creating a uniform legal and technical framework for developing, marketing and using electronic health record systems (EHR systems) in line with EU values.
EU platforms supporting digital health
The EU fosters eHealth collaboration through platforms to strengthen coordination, interoperability, and quality standards among Member States, promoting a unified approach to digital health across Europe.
The eHealth Network is a voluntary network connecting national eHealth authorities designated by Member States. This network issues non-binding guidelines to support Member States in establishing technical and semantic interoperability in their health information systems, facilitating efficient and secure cross-border exchange of patient data.
These guidelines provide a high-level conceptual structure for organizing data, addressing the wide variety of data standards across Europe. The guidelines ensure consistency, reduce fragmentation, and prevent duplication of efforts in digital health initiatives.
EU funding opportunities for digital health
The European Union provides significant financial support to help Member States enhance their digital health systems.
Several EU funding programs are available, offering resources for the development and implementation of digital health initiatives: EU4Health, Digital Europe Programme:, Connecting Europe Facility, Horizon Europe, Technical Support Instrument, The Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), Structural Reform Support Programme, The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), Just Transition Fund, European Social Fund.
Artificial Intelligence in healthcare
In healthcare, AI can analyse large amounts of data, find patterns and make predictions – helping healthcare professionals make more accurate diagnoses and develop personalised treatment plans. The Commission is committed to the development and deployment of AI in healthcare, while ensuring that these technologies are safe, trustworthy and respect European values by:
- funding research and innovation for research projects and startups that develop innovative AI solutions for healthcare
- developing regulatory frameworks to create and support the development and deployment of AI in healthcare, while ensuring patient safety and data protection
- promoting data sharing and collaboration among stakeholders to accelerate the development of AI-powered healthcare solutions.
International cooperation
The European Commission is committed to fostering global collaboration and cooperation in digital health. The Commission works with international partners whose goals include:
- developing digital health solutions
- improving health outcomes
- building on EU-developed solutions and standards
Such standards include the European Electronic Health Record Exchange Format (EEHRxF), to ease health data exchange between different countries.
