EU project launched to connect health data of three million citizens

A project to help connect electronic health record (EHR) systems across Europe has received €8 million funding from the European Commission.

The i2X project – which stands for Intelligent Implementation of the European Electronic Health Record Exchange Format (EEHRxF) – launched on 1 April 2025, marking a milestone in the development of the European Health Data Space.

It aims to ensure that different health information systems used across Europe can communicate with each other, meaning they can store, exchange, and interpret health data using a common language.

It brings together 38 consortium partners from 12 EU member states, including the Netherlands, Belgium, Cyprus, Czechia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, and Spain.

Eduardo Freire Rodrigues, cofounder and chief executive of Portuguese health tech firm UpHill, which is leading the consortium, said: “This project perfectly aligns with UpHill’s vision for a healthcare system that ensures continuity of care and puts patients first.

“i2X is committed to improving the experience of both healthcare professionals and patients by optimising workflows and integrating new technologies.

“With this extensive i2X ecosystem, we aim to improve care coordination across the EU, create specialised reference centres, reduce wait times, and eliminate unnecessary duplication of services.”

Among the consortium partners are Dedalus, Charité Hospital Berlin, and Bordeaux University Hospital.

At the core of the project is the EEHRxF, also known as X-Format, which enables both primary use of health data to support direct patient care and secondary use of health data for policymaking, research, and innovation.

It aims to demonstrate how the effective implementation of the X-Format, combined with the right technology, can enhance the healthcare experience for professionals and drive change across European health systems.

Henrique Martins, i2X project coordinator, said: “i2X will leverage AI and other advanced technologies to enable seamless interoperability in European healthcare—without adding extra work for healthcare professionals and while ensuring real benefits for patients.”

Over the next four years, the initiative will launch 35 pilot projects in five key areas: e-prescriptions, lab and test results, patient summaries, medical imaging and discharge reports.

Most consortium partners will run pilot projects to test the real-world application of the new health data exchange format, to ensure that digitalisation improves patient care without increasing the workload of healthcare professionals.

Some of the projects will incorporate AI-based technologies.

The project aims to enable access to and sharing of health data across borders, ensuring better healthcare for patients who travel or live in different EU countries.

It is also intended to strengthen care coordination across the EU by reducing costs and inefficiencies caused by duplicate medical procedures and tests while minimising risks associated with missing clinical information.

By the end of the project, the goal is to increase patient access to their health data by 75% and improve the availability of high-quality, structured health data in EHRs by up to 80%, both nationally and across borders.

At least 1,200 healthcare professionals will be involved, directly benefiting over 3m European citizens.

In December 2024, Martins spoke exclusively to Digital Health News about the importance of cross-border health data sharing.