The Athens Digital Health Week activities kicked off today, in the Royal Olympic Hotel in Athens, with the first X-Bundle retreat of the xShare project. This project aims to create the xShare button and the associated industry label that will allow everyone to get their data in a machine-readable interoperable format, the European electronic health record exchange format (EHRxF). The EHRxF allows citizens to quickly access and share their health data with healthcare professionals within the EU under the future European Health Data Space regulation. The X-Bundle retreat also brought in key participants from the XpanDH project, that has originated the notion of an X-Bundle to advance the EHRxF by aggregation of the required interoperability assets and create an ecosystem around the European EHRxF to prepare the ground for the European Health Data Space (EHDS).
The X-Bundle retreat brought together more than 20 representatives of standards developing organizations [CEN/TC 251, HL7 Europe, SNOMED International, CDISC, and IHE Europe] with competence centers, ISCTE, MEDIQ, FORTH, Digital Health Slovakia, and DIGITALEUROPE. The key question addressed were firstly, what are the available content, service and adoption components of X-Bundles for the different priority categories of electronic health data mentioned in the EHDS, namely, Patient Summaries, ePrescriptions/ eDispensations, Laboratory reports, Imaging Reports, and Hospital Discharge Reports. The discussion will continue during the week and will conclude on Friday with a first draft of the Annual plan for the European EHRxF Standards and Policy Hub. This Hub will function as a single point of contact for information on the EHRxF, including X-Bundles, and references to external sources of information.
The Commission Recommendation on a European Electronic Health Record exchange format (C(2019)800) of 6 February 2019 sets out a framework for the development of EHRxF to achieve secure, interoperable, cross-border access to, and exchange of, electronic health data in the Union. The recommendation comes to support the upcoming EHDS regulation.
About the xShare and XpanDH Project
The xShare project envisions everyone sharing their health data in EEHRxF with a click-of-a-button. The xShare button to be featured across health portals and patient apps and allow people to exercise their data portability rights under GDPR. Hence, the European EHRxF will be the driver for research and innovation in EHDS. xShare will establish the European EHRxF Standards and Policy Hub, the “Hub” partnership of six standards developing organizations (CEN/TC251, HL7 Europe, IHE Europe, SNOMED, CDISC, IEEE), market actors (DIGITAL EUROPE, MedTech-Europe and EUCROF), supported by competence centers, nationals and regional authorities and European SMEs. xShare will develop X-Bundles, core set of common data elements across healthcare, clinical research, and public/population, and extend the International Patient Summary for Research (IPS-R). xShare investigates the feasibility and value of the EU xShare Industry label as a vehicle towards implementing the draft EHDS regulation. Lastly open calls at the last year of the project aim to onboard with EHRxF almost 100 settings across Europe.
Follow xShare on LinkedIn and X for continual information about the project.
The XpanDH project will prepare and build capacity in individuals and organisations to be ready to use the EEHRxF), by establishing a pan-European effort through a Network of Networks approach. XpanDH will be creating, adapting and exploring the use of interoperable digital health solutions through a shared adoption of the EEHRxF across the EU. The project will develop robust technical specifications and resources for the EEHRxF building; establish the X-Bundle Readiness model and verify its usefulness in the real world; mature a pan-European digital health ecosystem for solution providers and end users; and develop a framework for a sustainable health ecosystem.
Follow XpanDH on LinkedIn and X for continual information about the project.
