EHDS Article 36. Common specifications

In order to enable the seamless exchange of electronic health data and ensure respect for the rights of natural persons and health professionals, EHR systems marketed in the internal market should be able to store and transmit, in a secure way, high quality electronic health data. It is a key objective of the EHDS to ensure the secure and free movement of electronic health data across the Union. To that end, a mandatory conformity self-assessment scheme for EHR systems processing one or more priority categories of electronic health data should be established to overcome market fragmentation while ensuring a proportionate approach. Through the self-assessment, EHR systems will prove compliance with the requirements on interoperability, security and logging for communication of personal electronic health data established by the two mandatory EHR software components harmonised by this Regulation, namely the European interoperability software component for EHR systems and the European logging software component for EHR systems (the ‘harmonised software components of EHR systems’). The harmonised software components of EHR systems mainly concern data transformation, although they may imply the need for indirect requirements for data registration and data presentation in EHR systems. Technical specifications for the harmonised software components of EHR systems should be defined by means of implementing acts and should be based on the use of the European electronic health record exchange format. The harmonised software components of EHR systems should be designed to be reusable and to integrate seamlessly with other components within a larger software system. The security requirements of the harmonised software components of EHR systems should cover elements specific to EHR systems, as more general security properties should be supported by other mechanisms such as those under Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 of the European Parliament and of the Council . To support that process, European digital testing environments should be set up to provide automated means to test whether the functioning of the harmonised software components of an EHR system is compliant with the requirements laid down in this Regulation. To that end, implementing powers should be conferred on the Commission to determine the common specifications for those environments. The Commission should develop the necessary software for the testing environments and make it available as open source. Member States should be responsible for the operation of the digital testing environments, as they are closer to manufacturers and better placed to support them. Manufacturers should use those digital testing environments to test their products before placing them on the market while continuing to bear full responsibility for the compliance of their products. The results of the test should become part of the product’s technical documentation. Where the EHR system or any part of it complies with European standards or common specifications, the list of the relevant European standards and common specifications should also be indicated in the technical documentation. To support the comparability of EHR systems, the Commission should prepare a uniform template for the technical documentation accompanying such systems.

Certain software components of EHR systems could be considered medical devices under Regulation (EU) 2017/745 or diagnostic medical devices under Regulation (EU) 2017/746 of the European Parliament and of the Council . Software or modules of software which fall within the definition of a medical device, diagnostic medical devices or an artificial intelligence (AI) system considered to be high-risk (the ‘high-risk AI system’) should be certified in accordance with Regulations (EU) 2017/745, (EU) 2017/746 and (EU) 2024/1689, as applicable. While such products are required to fulfil the requirements under the respective Regulation governing those products, Member States should take appropriate measures to ensure that the respective conformity assessment is carried out as a joint or coordinated procedure in order to limit the administrative burden on manufacturers and other economic operators. The essential requirements on interoperability of this Regulation should only apply to the extent that the manufacturer of a medical device, an diagnostic medical device, or a high-risk AI system, which is providing electronic health data to be processed as part of the EHR system, claims interoperability with such EHR system. In such case, the provisions on common specifications for EHR systems should be applicable to those medical devices, diagnostic medical devices and high-risk AI systems.

Compliance with essential requirements on interoperability and security should be demonstrated by the manufacturers of EHR systems through the implementation of common specifications. To that end, implementing powers should be conferred on the Commission to determine such common specifications regarding datasets, coding systems, technical specifications, standards, specifications and profiles for data exchange, as well as requirements and principles related to patient safety and the security, confidentiality, integrity and protection of personal data, and specifications and requirements related to identification management and the use of electronic identification. Digital health authorities should contribute to the development of such common specifications. Where applicable, those common specifications should be based on existing harmonised standards for the harmonised software components of EHR systems and be compatible with sectoral law. Where common specifications have a particular importance in relation to personal data protection requirements concerning EHR systems, they should be subject to consultation with the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) and the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) before their adoption, pursuant to Article 42(2) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725.