On 21 February 2025, the Einstein Center Digital Future (ECDF) hosted the high-profile event ‘Europe's Digital Future in Berlin: Excellent Health Data for Science, Business and Startups’. The event, jointly organized by the ECDF, UNITE and the Berliner Sparkasse, brought together around 80 invited guests from science, business, startups and politics. The aim of the event was to highlight the importance of the first sector-specific EU regulation, the European Health Data Space (EHDS), which is to be implemented in all 27 EU member states by 2026. High-quality health data plays a prominent role in this, including for the legal training of algorithms and artificial intelligence. As a location with an excellent scientific landscape and a growing digital health scene, Berlin in particular offers outstanding conditions for taking a leading role in this process.
After the opening by the ECDF spokespersons Tabea Flügge and Martin Gersch, the State Secretary for Science, Dr Henry Marx, emphasised the importance of a networked and efficient health data space for Berlin: ‘We need a reliable and excellent infrastructure for a Berlin health space,’ he emphasised. Dr Severin Fischer, State Secretary for Energy and Public Enterprises, argued along similar lines: ‘With the European Health Data Space (EHDS), the EU is creating binding rules for a common data economy for the first time. This is a historic opportunity to establish an independent, secure and innovation-friendly data infrastructure in Europe – as an alternative to the USA and China. Whether it's promoting AI models for healthcare, programmes such as start-up grants and venture capital funds for young companies, or targeted investment in biotechnology and digital health applications, we see it as our job to create the conditions for innovation and data protection to go hand in hand in Berlin.’
Discussion and expert contributions
Three roundtable discussions followed by topic-based tables were held to explore key topics in greater depth. The event began with a presentation of the basic idea behind the EHDS and the point being made that a paradigm shift is needed to make more efficient use of data, as data cannot currently be used as meaningfully as would be necessary. A research data portal could be a first step towards improving the situation. New publications are published daily, but often the underlying data is unstructured or difficult to access: ‘Health data is the cornerstone of almost every innovation in healthcare,’ said Roland Eils, Founding Director of the BIH Digital Health Center at Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin. Structured use and high-quality data are therefore the key to medical progress. At the same time, ECDF spokesperson and oral surgeon at the Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Tabea Flügge, emphasizes that patient data is a valuable asset and that patients must be sure that it is treated responsibly and evaluated with a high level of expertise,’ explains the ECDF professor.
Impulses from business and the start-up scene came from Berliner Sparkasse, UNITE and STACKIT, among others. The participants agreed on one thing: a European health data space is central to personalized medicine, but can only be achieved through the interaction of business, science and politics. ‘The Berlin-Brandenburg region has enormous potential that can be even better exploited through better networking between researchers, start-ups and companies,’ says Christoph Krüger of UNITE Berlin-Brandenburg, who also sees a special role in the transfer of scientific knowledge to industry.