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Aggiornamento 24 aprile 2024 – I Membri del Parlamento Europeo (MEP) hanno approvato la creazione dello Spazio Europeo dei Dati Sanitari (EHDS) I deputati hanno votato con 445 favorevoli e 142 contrari (39 astenuti) a favore dell’accordo interistituzionale sulla creazione di uno spazio europeo per i dati sanitari. Consentirà ai pazienti di accedere ai propri dati sanitari in formato elettronico, anche da uno Stato membro diverso da quello in cui vivono, e consentirà agli operatori sanitari di consultare le cartelle cliniche dei loro pazienti con il loro consenso (il cosiddetto uso primario), anche da altri paesi dell’UE. Queste cartelle cliniche elettroniche (EHR) includerebbero i resoconti dei pazienti, le prescrizioni elettroniche, le immagini mediche e i risultati di laboratorio. Pubblichiamo questo articolo critico sull’accordo interistituzionale elaborato dalla ONG SOMO che mette in evidenza anche gli aspetti di rischio per la privacy sanitaria e per l’eventuale utilizzo commerciale dei dati . Per leggere la documentazione istituzionale vai al sito della Commissione UE Spazio europeo dei dati sanitari editor |
Fonte : SOMO.NL che ringraziamo
European Parliament should vote against the EHDS in its current form
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The upcoming European Health Data Space (EHDS) opens the door to an unprecedented expansion of Big Tech into the health sector. In its current form, the EHDS exposes EU citizens’ private health data to Big Tech and pharmaceutical companies, allowing these companies to further strengthen their monopolistic market power. In the past years, Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft concluded over 200 partnerships with healthcare and pharmaceutical companies around the world. The total value of investment deals in the health sector involving Big Tech exceeded EUR 35 billion (between 2012 and 2023).
Amazon, Apple, Alphabet (Google) and Microsoft are in a perfect position to extend their reach into the health sector. Their infrastructural, intellectual property, data, financial, and political power, enables them to exercise monopoly power. While new digital health technologies and systems can provide substantial benefits to patients and healthcare professionals, the monopolistic market power of Big Tech companies poses real and severe risks to the well-being of patients, the rights of citizens and the proper functioning of healthcare systems.
The monopoly power of Big Tech will enable tech companies to set rules and standards in the health sector, e.g. related to the digital health infrastructure, such as cloud storage for health data, electronic health record systems, and other technologies. It will also give them the ability to charge excessive prices for the products and services they develop. Ultimately, healthcare users and taxpayers will end up paying the price of Big Tech’s monopoly power, while also being confronted with significant risks of harmful effects on patient well-being and on the democratic governance of healthcare systems.
Rolling out the red carpet for Big Tech
The EU proposal for setting up the European Health Data Space (EHDS) provides Big Tech companies with a key opportunity to expand their presence and power over the European health sector. This new law will oblige healthcare providers across the EU to collect and process patient health data in digital patient records, including medical information, lab results, and medical images, in a standardised and exchangeable format. These data can then be used by healthcare providers to exchange information for the provision of primary care to patients. The EHDS will also make these data available for secondary purposes, such as scientific research, policy-making, and the development of products and services by companies.
The EHDS will create a strong dependency on Big Tech companies for the provision of critical digital health infrastructure. It will also provide Big Tech companies with unprecedented opportunities to benefit from EU citizens’ health data for the development of their products and services, fuelling their profits and market power. As such, the EHDS stands in stark contrast to the EU’s efforts to contain Big Tech monopoly power through e.g. the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the Digital Services Act (DSA), as well as recent interventions by market regulators.
Only a week after a provisional political agreement(opens in new window) with the European Parliament negotiators was reached, EU Member States adopted(opens in new window) the EHDS in March 2024. The European Parliament still has a final opportunity to prevent rolling out the red carpet for Big Tech in EU healthcare systems when it votes on the compromise text on 24 April 2024.