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Data governance must consider the interests of the global community

Nature Medicine (2025)Cite this article

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The European Health Data Space Regulation (EHDS), a legal framework that facilitates the interoperability of electronic health record systems between member states, entered into force on 26 March 2025, ushering in a new era for European Union (EU) health data governance. The aim of the EHDS is not only to empower people to access, control and share their personal electronic health data for healthcare delivery but also to enable the secure and trustworthy reuse of health data for research, innovation and policymaking. How should this legislative milestone be received in a world with growing ambitions for global equity in digital health?

We connect this regulatory innovation to the emerging debate on digital determinants of health (DDH) — where health data can create global inequities via the digital divide — and introduce the concept of ‘data cosmopolitanism’ to advance global data justice and solidarity, outlining some benefits and challenges (Table 1).

Table 1 Conceptual clarifications
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Acknowledgements

We thank B. Prainsack for insightful comments on earlier versions of the manuscript. J.R., J.D. and D.R.-A. acknowledge the project PROTECT-CHILD funded by the EU’s Horizon Europe research and innovation program (grant agreement 101137423). J.R.’s work is funded by the European Commission – NextGenerationEU, through Momentum CSIC Programme: Develop Your Digital Talent. B.D.E. is supported by the National Research Foundation, Singapore, under its AI Singapore Programme (AISG award AISG3-GV-2023-012). I.d.M.B. acknowledges the support of the Basque Government, Ayudas a grupos de investigación, Grupo de Investigación, IT 1541-22. S.P.M. and G.L. are supported by a Novo Nordisk Foundation grant for a scientifically independent International Collaborative Bioscience Innovation & Law Programme (Inter-CeBIL program, grant NNF23SA0087056). K.J. has received funding from the Dutch Research Council (grant VI.Vidi.221F.010). H.M. has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement 919841—DIME). A.P. acknowledges funding of the project POyETICAS from the State Research Agency of Spain (PID2023-148517NB-100). R.R. acknowledges support from the Volkswagen Foundation (grant 9B233) for funding the Digital Medical Ethics Network. M.V. thanks the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico : APQ/PRÓ-HUMANIDADES (421523/2022-0); Chamada Universal (421419/2023-7); and Bolsista de Produtividade em Pesquisa - PQ2 (315804/2023-8). T.Ż. has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement 805498).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. President’s Cabinet, Spanish National Research Council, Madrid, Spain

    Jon Rueda

  2. Center for Advanced Studies in Bioscience Innovation Law (CeBIL), Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Sebastian Porsdam Mann & Gabriela Lenarczyk

  3. School of Health Sciences, Yamaguchi University Graduate School of Medicine, Yamaguchi, Japan

    Janet Delgado

  4. Centre for Biomedical Ethics, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Brian D. Earp

  5. Julius Center, Department of Bioethics & Health Humanities, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, the Netherlands

    Karin Jongsma

  6. Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    Heidi Mertes

  7. Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    Heidi Mertes

  8. Interdepartmental Center for Research Ethics and Integrity (CID Ethics), National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Rome, Italy

    Davide Battisti

  9. Ikerbasque, Basque Foundation for Science, Bilbao, Spain

    Íñigo de Miguel Beriain

  10. NOVA School of Law, CEDIS–Research & Development Centre on Law and Society, Universida de Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

    Vera Lúcia Raposo

  11. Faculty of Health Sciences Brandenburg, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany

    Robert Ranisch

  12. Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, National School of Public Health, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Murilo Vilaça

  13. Institute of Philosophy, Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Kraków, Poland

    Tomasz Żuradzki

  14. Interdisciplinary Centre for Ethics, Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Kraków, Poland

    Tomasz Żuradzki

  15. Cátedra Youngner de Bioética Empírica, FiloLab-UGR, Department of Philosophy I, University of Granada, Granada, Spain

    David Rodríguez-Arias

  16. Department of Philosophy, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Angel Puyol

Authors
  1. Jon Rueda
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  2. Sebastian Porsdam Mann
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  3. Janet Delgado
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  7. Davide Battisti
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  9. Gabriela Lenarczyk
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  10. Vera Lúcia Raposo
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jon Rueda.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Rueda, J., Porsdam Mann, S., Delgado, J. et al. Data governance must consider the interests of the global community. Nat Med (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-025-03837-x

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