Recital 26

The level of availability of personal health and genetic data in an electronic format varies between Member States. The EHDS should make it easier for natural persons to have those data available in electronic format and to control better the access to and sharing of their personal electronic health data. This would also contribute to the achievement of the target of 100 % of Union citizens having access to their electronic health records by 2030, as referred to in Decision (EU) 2022/2481 of the European Parliament and of the Council (8). In order to make electronic health data accessible and transmissible, such data should be accessed and transmitted in an interoperable common European electronic health record exchange format, at least for certain categories of electronic health data such as patient summaries, electronic prescriptions and dispensations, medical imaging studies and related imaging reports, medical test results and discharge reports, subject to transition periods. Where personal electronic health data are made available to a healthcare provider or a pharmacy by a natural person, or are transmitted by another controller in the European electronic health record exchange format, that format should be accepted, and the recipient should be able to read the data and use them for the provision of healthcare or for dispensation of a medicinal product, thus supporting the provision of the healthcare services or the dispensation of the electronic prescription. The European electronic health record exchange format ought to be designed in a way that facilitates translation of electronic health data communicated using that format into the official languages of the Union, to the extent possible. Commission Recommendation (EU) 2019/243 (9) provides the foundations for such a common European electronic health record exchange format. The interoperability of the EHDS should contribute to having European health datasets of a high quality. The use of a European electronic health record exchange format should become more widespread at Union and national level. The European electronic health record exchange format could allow for different profiles for its use at the level of EHR systems and at the level of the national contact points for digital health in MyHealth@EU for cross-border data exchange.