A brief overview of some terms relating to data and health

Health data access bodies (HDAB) will monitor and contribute to a consistent application of the rules throughout the EU, including by advising the European Commission, while cooperating with other EU bodies and stakeholders (e.g. patient organisations). They also monitor, examine and supervise compliance by data users and data holders with the requirements in the EHDS Regulation. This body acts as a facilitator to help organizations securely access and share health data for specific purposes like research, policy-making, and innovation. They ensure that sensitive health data is handled with care, privacy, and security at the forefront. In Belgium, this responsibility is held by the Belgian Health Data Access Body (Belgian HDA). The Belgian HDA helps organizations like hospitals, universities, companies, and research institutions to access health data in a regulated way. It ensures that health data is only used for legal, ethical, and scientific purposes, with all necessary safeguards in place to protect patient privacy.

HeDERA stands for Health Data Enabled for Re-use Across Belgium. HeDERA supports the mission of the HDA to facilitate secondary use of health, healthcare and well-being data in a safe, uniform, and transparent environment. The project will especially support Belgium’s efforts to enlarge the capacity of the HDA, ensuring its connection, alignment and technical interoperability with the European Health Data Space and other European developments. HeDERA is coordinated by the Belgian Federal Public Service (FPS) Health, Food chain safety and Environment, in partnership with Sciensano.

Health Level Seven International (HL7) is a not-for-profit, ANSI-accredited standards developing organization dedicated to providing a comprehensive framework and related standards for the exchange, integration, sharing and retrieval of electronic health information.