GET REHDY: Getting Ready for the European Health Data Space
GET REHDY is a Flemish project helping healthcare organisations prepare for the European Health Data Space (EHDS) and the secondary use (= reuse) of health data. It addresses the major technical, legal and organisational gaps that currently prevent hospitals and companies from sharing and reusing data effectively. Through practical tools, guidance and real-world collaboration, the project promotes high‑quality data management, compliance‑by‑design and a cultural shift toward data-driven innovation. Ultimately, GET REHDY aims to make Flemish healthcare actors fully EHDS‑ready and capable of turning health data into a trustworthy asset for research and innovation.
Compliance to European Health Data Regulations
The European Health Data Space (EHDS), in force since March 2025, is a landmark piece of European data policy. For Flemish healthcare organisations and HealthTech companies, it represents both a defining challenge and a strategic opportunity, to regain leadership in clinical research, enable data-driven care and innovation, and strengthen trust across the health data ecosystem.
Yet readiness is far from guaranteed. Many healthcare providers still collect data solely for clinical purposes, without any infrastructure for sharing or reuse. Most face a combination of limited in-house expertise, unclear guidance, and uncertainty about how to translate legal obligations into day-to-day practice.
GET REHDY is here to change that. This project is led by a multidisciplinary team of five Flemish knowledge institutions. Their mission is to support healthcare actors across Flanders, from hospitals and healthtech firms to legal experts and patient groups, in becoming EHDS-ready for the reuse of health data.
Multidisciplinary Approach for EHDS-Readiness
GET REHDY works from three complementary angles:
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Technical: We introduce the data product approach: treating health data not as a by-product of care delivery, but as a high-quality, trustworthy and reusable asset managed throughout its full lifecycle. We develop modular components covering data quality, interoperability, privacy-by-design and metadata management.
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Legal: We translate the complex requirements of the EHDS, GDPR and Data Governance Act into practical, usable tools and guidance. We help organisations understand which obligations apply to them and how to integrate compliance-by-design into their processes from the ground up.
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Organisational: EHDS readiness also requires a cultural shift. Through co-creation, role-specific training and engagement tools, we strengthen the knowledge, skills and digital literacy of all stakeholders involved, from data stewards to patient organisations.
We work bottom-up, with real hospitals, companies and citizens. We deliver usable tools and demonstrators, not reports that sit on a shelf. And we clarify what can already be done, even before all regulatory structures are fully in place.
VITO's role in GET REHDY
VITO leads the project coordination and communication. With extensive experience in cross-sectoral data infrastructures, privacy-preserving methods and stakeholder engagement, VITO acts as the bridge between the technical and legal workstreams and ensures that project results are grounded in real-world needs. VITO also leads the development of the EHDS readiness self-assessment toolkit and the compliance-by-design translation from legal to technical specifications.
In a previous COOCK-project, SAVE DATA, the need for health data sharing and building bridges between all stakeholders was already a focal point. GET REHDY builds on the knowledge from SAVE DATA and takes the opportunities the EHDS could offer to make the sharing of health data for innovation, more personalized medicine, and improved patient outcomes a reality.
