EDIH – Health Data Sweden

Halmstad University is part of a national consortium that the European Commission has designated as one of Europe's digital innovation hubs, EDIH. The Swedish EDIH, called Health Data Sweden, has the overall goal of making health data available to small and medium-sized companies.

Health Data Sweden is a national consortium of universities, regions, innovation environments and research institutes. The digital innovation hub's strength lies in cutting-edge research on health data combined with an ecosystem that, via the partners' networks, expertise and service offering, can pass on knowledge to the public sector, businesses and citizens.

Health Data Sweden is coordinated at national level by KTH and runs from January 2023 to December 2026.
The Health Data Centre (HDC) and the innovation arena Leap for Life are jointly responsible for Halmstad University's part in the project.
Health Data Sweden contains six work packages and Halmstad University is responsible for work package 2 which will optimize the availability and use of health data.

Increasing the use of health data

One of the aims of Health Data Sweden is to increase the use of health data to contribute to more efficient healthcare. An important task will therefore be to meet the great need for services that contribute to small and medium-sized companies in collaboration with the public sector being able to develop new digital health and welfare services. In addition to better health for the individual, these services can also contribute to solving major demographic societal challenges, for example making care more accessible and equal.

Already today, Health Data Sweden's partners deliver services that annually reach more than 800 companies. The ambition as a digital innovation hub is to almost double this capacity.

"Health Data Sweden has gathered a Sweden-wide constellation of competence. Being able to spread knowledge and experiences from the best initiatives is a basic prerequisite for us to succeed in creating value from health data, not only for research but above all for citizens", says Sebastiaan Meijer, Professor of healthcare logistics at KTH, who is the coordinating party for Health Data Sweden in the new hub.

Sweden is far ahead in both health innovation and the use of health data, but the innovation process is hampered by a fragmented ownership of data. There is a great need for an ecosystem that includes all major stakeholders, where cutting-edge knowledge, data access, testbeds and early funding become available as services for both the public sector and SMEs in Sweden and the EU.

"That Sweden can in this way take the lead in the joint European work with better utilization of health data is very gratifying. The innovation hub Health Data Sweden will be important for the life science ecosystem and for policy development both in Sweden and internationally", says Jenni Nordborg, national life science coordinator at the Government Office.

Partners in Health Data Sweden

Blekinge Digital Health, Bron Innovation, DigitalWell Arena, eHealth Arena, EIT Digital, EIT Health, Leap for Life/Halmstad University, Karolinska Institutet, KTH (koordinator), Linnaeus University, Livsmedicin, Region Stockholm, RISE, Stockholm Science City, Stockholms universitet, STUNS Life Science and Uppsala University.