Health Data Reuse: Why Is It Important for Lithuania?
In the healthcare sector, vast amounts of information are accumulated every day: these are data on visits to healthcare institutions, reimbursable medicines, tests and their results, diagnoses, and procedures. The primary purpose of collecting such data is to ensure patient care so that treatment is appropriate, timely, and continuous. At the same time, these data represent significant opportunities and benefits for society: the reuse of health data makes it possible to base decisions on facts rather than intuition.
The reuse (secondary use) of health data is important in three key aspects, as it helps to:
- improve the quality of healthcare services,
- promote innovation,
- strengthen evidence-based policymaking.
From Data to Better Decisions
When discussing the strengthening of the healthcare system, the following goals are often mentioned: reducing avoidable mortality, improving prevention, shortening waiting times, and ensuring the quality of services across regions. However, achieving all of these goals requires an accurate “map” of the current situation.
Health data reuse makes it possible to see:
- how the prevalence of certain diseases and treatment practices are changing,
- which services actually reach patients,
- how outcomes differ across institutions or regions.
Such data not only provide a basis for analysis but also encourage concrete action: improving the organization of services, planning resources, and assessing the effectiveness of programs.
Science, Innovation, and Decision-Makers – the Same Starting Line
It is important to note that data reuse is not merely an academic interest. It is a principle underpinning the functioning of the entire ecosystem, whereby researchers, innovators, and public institutions are enabled to develop solutions that deliver benefits to society.
Permits issued to the State Data Agency (Statistics Lithuania) to use health data open the way for research covering a wide range of topics: from evaluating the effectiveness of programmes to the analysis of rare diseases. In I quarter 2025 alone, 9 new permits were issued, 7 previously issued permits were amended, and under 6 permits part of the data has already been provided to users.
Among the most significant projects is EuroHeart, an international initiative dedicated to the analysis of myocardial infarction data and the monitoring of quality indicators. The project enables Lithuanian hospitals to operate according to harmonised data standards and to participate in analyses conducted at the European level.
Data have also been used in other studies and surveys: the effectiveness of the cervical cancer prevention programme was assessed, trends in paediatric medicine use, as well as cardiovascular risk factors, treatment practices for inflammatory bowel diseases, and other topics of relevance to society were analysed.
Intensive work continued in II quarter 2025 as well: 4 new permits were issued and 5 previously issued permits were amended, and data were provided to both national and international research teams.
When Data Become a Quality Monitoring Tool
The reuse of health data is important not only for research, but also for consistent and transparent monitoring of quality of the healthcare system.
The Health Data Team of the State Data Agency, together with its partners, is developing solutions for calculating and visualising healthcare service quality indicators. One such solution is the National Health Insurance Fund’s indicator dashboard, which enables indicators to be calculated and presented within the data lake environment.
In addition, a human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination dashboard has been developed, helping to monitor trends in vaccination against HPV. This is relevant both for health policy makers and for public health professionals.
Equally important is the work on calculating, validating, and visualising indicators for medical clusters (in the areas of stroke, myocardial infarction, oncology, and severe trauma), which allows for the systematic assessment of service quality.
User Convenience: From Permits to the Catalogue
For the health data reuse to be applied in practice, not only a legal framework is important but also user-friendly practical tools. It is essential to clearly understand which data can be accessed, under what conditions, and how to obtain them. In II quarter 2025, the Health Data Catalogue became available to users: a centralised location where information on available health data sets, their structure, and access conditions can be found. The catalogue is one of the completed outputs of the team’s work aimed at improving the user experience.
In parallel, the data “lake” designed for analysis is also being expanded: new sources are being systematically integrated, including data from Vilnius University Hospital Santaros Clinics, LSMU Kaunas Clinics, and the National Centre of Pathology.
Data Creating Value for Society
The value of data reuse is best demonstrated through concrete results. For example, the statistical survey on pharmaceutical product sales made it possible to calculate household expenditure in pharmacies in greater detail, distinguishing between purchases of prescription medicines, over-the-counter medicines, and other products sold in pharmacies.
However, the greatest value often lies where data help to make decisions affecting people’s health, as well as the accessibility and effectiveness of treatment.
This is precisely why the reuse of health data is not an “additional function” but an integral part of a modern healthcare system: one in which decisions on prevention, treatment, and financing are based on the real performance of the system.