Breaking Switzerland's Health Data Deadlock

(EPFL, October 01, 2025)

Switzerland's healthcare system is at a standstill, unable to use health data for secondary purposes due to a lack of coordination and commitment. Dr. Paola Daniore and her team at the Center for Digital Trust (C4DT), EPFL have identified this issue as a major barrier to healthcare quality, sustainability, and innovation in the nation. They stress the urgent need for a unified strategy to unlock health data's potential, warning that failure to act could widen the innovation gap and increase financial pressures. The team proposes a solution with six strategic recommendations to enable responsible health data sharing. These strategies include creating a shared vision, underlining the benefits of secondary data use, offering financial incentives, using existing metadata registries, providing risk assessment guidelines, and standardizing data use and protection rules. This approach aims to boost healthcare innovation and financial sustainability in Switzerland and serves as a model for responsible data sharing globally.