Recital 55

In the context of the EHDS, electronic health data already exist and are being collected by, among others, healthcare providers, professional associations, public institutions, regulators, researchers and insurers in the course of their activities. Those data should also be made available for secondary use, that is to say for processing of data for purposes other than those for which they were collected or produced, however, many of such data are not made available for processing for such purposes. This limits the ability of researchers, innovators, policy-makers, regulators and doctors to use those data for different purposes, including research, innovation, policymaking, regulatory purposes, patient safety or personalised medicine. In order to fully exploit the benefits of secondary use, all health data holders should contribute to this effort in making different categories of electronic health data they are holding available for secondary use, provided that such effort is always made through effective and secured processes, with due respect for professional duties, such as confidentiality duties.