The European Health Data Space, currently under negotiation, would turn citizens’ medical data into profits for US technology companies.
As in other sectors, Big Tech can greatly benefit from the aggregation of big data from private sources (Tero Vesalainen/shutterstock.com)
This month and next, European Union member states and the European Parliament are holding “tripartite” negotiations on a proposal to create a European Health Data Space (EHDS), aiming to reach a political agreement before the European elections in June. At the heart of the proposal is a standardized language and infrastructure for healthcare providers across the EU to collect and process patient health data, such as medical information, test results and prescriptions, in digital records.
This data will be used for patients’ primary medical care, as well as for secondary purposes such as scientific research, policy development and by companies to develop products and services. The proposal also aims to create a single market for digital health products and services, such as electronic record systems and “telehealth” applications.
Giving EU citizens better access to their health data and enabling more efficient digital data exchange between healthcare providers would bring great benefits to the health system and prevent duplication of professional work. Secondary uses of digital health data offer great opportunities for developing better health policies and new medicines and treatments.
div{padding-right:0!important;padding-bottom:10px}.ml-form-formContent.horozintalForm .ml-button-horizontal{width:100%!important}.ml-form-formContent.horozintalForm . ml-button-horizontal.labelsOn{padding-top:0!important}} ]]> div{padding-bottom:0!important}} ]]>
Join over 24,000 knowledgeable readers and stay ahead of the curve with insightful content.
It’s free.
thank you!
Please check your inbox and click the link in the confirmation email to complete your newsletter subscription.
Rolling out the red carpet
But with this proposal, the EU is rolling out the red carpet to tech companies such as Amazon, Google and Microsoft, which have become increasingly active in digital health. The EHDS offers Big Tech an unprecedented opportunity to expand its influence over healthcare providers, governments and patients, further increasing its already worryingly large market power. The proposal stands in stark contrast to efforts to curb that excessive power, and related threats to Europe’s economy and democracy, through new EU laws such as the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act.
For Big Tech, healthcare represents a huge source of highly valuable data that can be converted into potential revenue, and technology companies have been aggressive in healthcare-related acquisitions, partnerships, and patent filings in recent years. Take Google’s $2.1 billion purchase of electronics and fitness company Fitbit in 2019 and Microsoft’s $19.7 billion acquisition of artificial intelligence voice company Nuance Communications in 2021, for example.
Meanwhile, the number of healthcare-related patents being registered by big tech companies to lock down intellectual property is soaring. These companies are also forming dozens of partnerships with teaching hospitals and healthcare providers, especially in the U.S. Controversial cases include Project Nightingale, in which the medical data of tens of millions of Americans was given to Google without their knowledge or consent through a partnership with healthcare provider Ascension.
Become a member of Social Europe
Become a member of Social Europe for less than 5 euros per month and support independent publishing and progressive ideas. Your support makes a big difference.
Click here to become a member
The perfect platform
The EHDS proposal would make it easier for Big Tech to increase their influence over Europe’s economy and health systems in at least two ways. First, while any company would be allowed to request access to health data for research purposes, Big Tech, with their monopoly on AI and cloud storage space, stand to benefit disproportionately: they could patent products and services developed using the health data of European citizens and then charge those same citizens exorbitant fees.
This is a familiar pattern in the pharmaceutical industry, where expensive medicines are often developed through publicly funded research: Big tech companies conduct almost all of their healthcare research in collaboration with academic institutions, yet more than 99 percent of the resulting patent applications are filed exclusively by the companies.
Second, the EHDS creates the perfect platform for Big Tech to become an essential supplier of digital infrastructure for storing and exchanging patient data to the thousands of European healthcare providers who will need to comply with the system. For example, there is little escape in cloud storage, where Amazon, Microsoft and Google have a combined 65% market share: in the Netherlands, an estimated three-quarters of GPs’ patient records are stored on Amazon servers, and France’s Health Data Hub relies on Microsoft for the digital infrastructure it needs to exchange data.
Without competition, these companies are free to increase the prices they charge providers of products and services. Moreover, Big Tech’s market power gives them outsized influence over the design of critical digital health infrastructure, health systems, and public health policies, at the expense of the input of patients, medical professionals, and policymakers.
The next frontier of growth
Negotiators in the European Parliament and the Council of the EU can at least partially prevent healthcare from becoming Big Tech’s next growth frontier. The EHDS should set clear rules on reciprocity. The benefits of innovations developed using European health data, including medicines and other health products, should be returned to society, including through fair price levels. And European citizens should have a say in decisions about who their health data is made available to and under what conditions.
Meanwhile, governments need to invest in public digital health infrastructure rather than relying on private companies, and EU market regulators need to act consistently against the monopolistic market positions of big tech companies in the interest of an economy and society that works for people, not profits.
Eileen Schipper is a senior research fellow at the Centre for the Study of Multinational Enterprises (SOMO) with expertise in pharmaceuticals and electronics.
David Olivier des Les is a researcher at the Centre for the Study of Multinational Enterprises (SOMO).
Jan-Willem Goudrien has been Secretary General of the European Confederation of Public Servants’ Unions (EPSU) since 2014.