The Health Brief

Understanding vaccine hesitancy in Europe

This week EURACTIV's health reporter Marta Iraola talks to Dr. Emilie Karafillakis about vaccine confidence in Europe and what is behind people's lack of trust in vaccination and public health campaigns. In this episode, the health team reunites before the summer to say goodbye to this podcast as from September health topics will be covered under Beyond the Byline podcast.

AI: at the Interface of computer science and Medicine

From YouTube-recommended videos to facial recognition used to unlock smartphones, AI is already being used on a daily basis. The healthcare sector is not an exception as its ability to process vast amounts of medical data helps in diagnostics and medical image analysis. To better understand where AI is already used and what potential it holds, EURACTIV’s Giedrė Peseckytė is talking with Jakob Kather, a medical doctor and a Professor of Clinical artificial intelligence at the computer science and the medical faculty in Dresden. As he says, he is in a “quite unique position at the interface of computer science and medicine,” where with his team he is using artificial intelligence for medical decision-making and developing tomorrow's AI tools for medicine.

European Health Data Space on the Parliament's Plate

As the European Parliament debates how European health data space should be shaped, EURACTIV talks with the co-rapporteur of the file, Croatian MEP Tomislav Sokol (EPP), touching on primary and secondary use of data, the reasons why parliament supports the opt-out option and what is left to discuss before the discussions can start with the Council.

Balancing patients' privacy and health data's potential

European Health Data Space (EHDS) focuses on the primary and secondary use of data. While the primary use of data is data used by citizens and healthcare professionals at the national and EU levels the secondary data is to be used by researchers, policy makers and pharma. The Commission's proposal does not include any say for patients regarding the secondary use of data, while Parliament, which is currently dealing with the proposal [https://www.euractiv.com/section/health-consumers/news/eu-parliament-solving-riddle-of-secondary-use-of-data-in-health-data-space/], is vowing for an opt-out option. In the meantime, there is a petition [https://act.wemove.eu/campaigns/medical-records?action=sign]circling calling for the empowerment of patients regarding the secondary use of their health records. About what concerns are being seen for the patients when it comes to reuse of the health data EURACTIV's Giedre Peseckyte is talking with Jan Penfrat, the senior policy advisor at the European digital rights association.

The challenge of guaranteeing access to healthcare to all Ukrainian refugees

On the occasion of the first Healthcare Forum, which took place in Wąsowo, Poland last week, Euractiv spoke with the Regional Director of WHO/Europe, Dr Hans Kluge.  In this interview, Dr. Kluge looked back on his meeting with the Polish and Ukrainian Ministers of Health about the Healthy Reconstruction of Ukraine. He dug into the physical and mental health needs of the refugees, but also into the limited access to sexual and reproductive rights for Ukrainian women in Poland, as some of them could not have an abortion due to the Polish law.