EU to make health data access easier for a better patient outcome

Several patients, doctors, regulators, and researchers are likely to have easier access to health data by 2025, according to a recent plan from European Commission, to ensure enhanced diagnoses, reduced unneeded expenditures from duplicate medical testing, and boost medical research.

Studies have found that patients still cannot access their health reports digitally and often cannot share the data with other health professionals if they want to consult doctors at a hospital or some medical center.

The European Commission has proposed a remedy, stating that the problem might be solved by making data more accessible to patients through the construction of publicly accessible internet databases.

The legally binding proposal details the EU executive's ambitions for Europe’s health data space, which Brussels thinks will result in huge savings and a surplus of more than €10 billion over the next ten years. According to the EU study, patients spend at least €1.4 billion every year on unneeded medical images, with X-rays or ultrasound tests being superfluous as they are mostly duplications of existing legitimate images.

The rise in unnecessary tests and prescriptions is primarily due to difficulties in accessing health data, which is frequently unavailable to patients. This increased usage of easily available electronic prescriptions is expected to allow for significant cost savings by eliminating medication distribution errors.

Stella Kyriakides, the EU's Health Commissioner, has stated that improved access to health data would considerably benefit people with serious illnesses such as cancer. Healthcare providers would be compelled to create interoperable electronic health data under the scheme.

According to the EU’s plan, data collected from patients' health records and wellness applications will be aggregated into incompatible forms and made available to patients, regulators, and researchers under tight privacy guidelines. There are also plans for improving cybersecurity in the healthcare sector.

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https://health.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/policy/eu-plans-to-cut-unneeded-medical-tests-with-data-health-plan/91284117