Recital 2

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the imperative of having timely access to quality electronic health data for health threats preparedness and response, as well as for prevention, diagnosis and treatment and for secondary use of such electronic health data. Such timely access could potentially contribute, through efficient public health surveillance and monitoring, to more effective management of future pandemics, to a reduction of costs and to improving the response to health threats, and ultimately could help to save more lives. In 2020, the Commission urgently adapted its Clinical Patient Management System, established by Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2019/1269 (4), to allow Member States to share electronic health data of COVID-19 patients moving between healthcare providers and Member States during the peak of that pandemic. However, that adaptation was only an emergency solution, showing the need for a structural and consistent approach at Member State and Union level, both in order to improve the availability of electronic health data for healthcare and to facilitate access to electronic health data in order to steer effective policy responses and contribute to high standards of human health.