European Health Tech: Patient Data Stays in Europe

Health Data Is the Most Sensitive Data You Have

Your medical records, prescriptions, mental health history, genetic information, and fitness tracking data paint an extraordinarily intimate portrait of your life. Health data is not just personal — it is the kind of information that can affect your insurance premiums, employment prospects, and personal relationships if exposed. This is precisely why it deserves the highest level of protection, and why the jurisdiction handling that data matters more than in almost any other category.

When European patients use US-based health apps and platforms, their data falls under American legal frameworks that offer far weaker protections. The US CLOUD Act allows American authorities to compel US companies to hand over data regardless of where it is stored. HIPAA, the American health privacy law, is riddled with exceptions and applies only to “covered entities” like hospitals and insurers — not to the consumer health apps millions of people use daily. The result is a vast grey zone where sensitive health data can be accessed, sold, or subpoenaed with limited legal recourse.

Under GDPR, health data is classified as a “special category” of personal data, receiving the strongest protection the regulation offers. Processing health data requires explicit consent or another specific legal basis, and organizations must implement additional safeguards including data protection impact assessments and, in many cases, appointment of a Data Protection Officer.

The European Health Data Space (EHDS), adopted in 2025, takes this further. It establishes a framework for secure, interoperable health data exchange across EU member states while giving patients clear rights over their electronic health records. The EHDS creates rules for both primary use (direct healthcare) and secondary use (research, policy-making) of health data, with strict governance and pseudonymization requirements for secondary use. This is a fundamentally different approach from the US model, where health data governance is fragmented and consumer protections are inconsistent.

European Health Tech Worth Knowing

Doctolib

Headquarters: Paris, France Focus: Medical appointment booking, teleconsultation, practice management

Doctolib has become the dominant healthcare platform in France, Germany, and Italy, used by hundreds of thousands of healthcare professionals and tens of millions of patients. The platform enables appointment booking, teleconsultation via encrypted video, secure document exchange, and practice management tools for healthcare providers. All data is hosted in European data centers, and the company has invested heavily in end-to-end encryption for teleconsultations.

Ada Health

Headquarters: Berlin, Germany Focus: AI-powered symptom assessment

Ada Health offers an AI-driven symptom assessment app that helps users understand potential health conditions before consulting a doctor. Built in partnership with medical institutions, Ada’s reasoning engine draws on a comprehensive medical knowledge base. The company processes all health data on European infrastructure and has been transparent about its data practices, publishing regular privacy reports.

MyTherapy

Headquarters: Munich, Germany Focus: Medication management and health tracking

MyTherapy is a medication reminder and health diary app developed by smartpatient, a Munich-based company. The app helps patients track medications, symptoms, and vital measurements, and can generate health reports to share with physicians. MyTherapy operates under German and EU data protection law, with all data processed on European servers.

Kry / Livi

Headquarters: Stockholm, Sweden Focus: Digital healthcare and teleconsultation

Kry (known as Livi in some markets) is one of Europe’s largest digital healthcare providers, offering video consultations with licensed physicians across Sweden, Norway, the UK, France, and Germany. The platform integrates with national health systems, meaning consultations are often covered by public health insurance. All patient data is handled under EU jurisdiction with strict medical data compliance.

Why Jurisdiction Matters for Health Data

The risk of US health tech is not theoretical. In 2024, it was revealed that several popular US health apps had been sharing user data with advertising networks and data brokers, often in ways that technically complied with their privacy policies but clearly violated user expectations. Period tracking apps, mental health platforms, and fitness trackers were all implicated.

For European patients, switching to EU-based health tech eliminates this jurisdictional exposure. When your health data is processed by a company headquartered in the EU, stored on EU servers, and governed by GDPR’s special category protections, the legal framework works in your favor rather than against it.

Practical Steps for Patients

Making the switch to European health tech does not require an overhaul of your healthcare routine:

Appointment booking: If your healthcare provider uses Doctolib, use it. If not, ask whether they offer a European booking platform.
Symptom checking: Replace US-based symptom checkers with Ada Health for AI-powered assessments built under European data standards.
Medication tracking: Switch to MyTherapy or a similar EU-based app instead of apps from US pharmaceutical companies.
Teleconsultation: Use platforms like Kry/Livi or Doctolib that integrate with European national health systems.
Fitness tracking: Consider whether your wearable’s companion app sends data to US servers, and explore European alternatives where possible.

The Bottom Line

Health data is too important to leave to the weakest-link jurisdiction. European health tech platforms offer genuine clinical utility — appointment booking, teleconsultation, symptom assessment, medication management — while operating within the strongest health data protection framework in the world. The European Health Data Space will further strengthen these protections as it rolls out across member states. For European patients, the practical choice and the privacy-conscious choice are increasingly the same thing: use health tech built by European companies, for European patients, under European law.