Big Data and Advanced Analytics Barrier: Privacy and Security

HISGOV dataset notes

The health information system (HIS) and data governance database brings together selected indicators from various data sources. Its purpose is to create a comprehensive overview of the advancements and bottlenecks related to HIS and data governance in the WHO European Region. As such, it forms a catalogue of expertise and needs that can be used as a tool for identifying frontrunners and best practices and for gaining insights into barriers and impeding factors across the Region.

The database contains close to 70 indicators, which are clustered into the following sections:

• National Strategy and Policy Foundations: Digital health

• National Strategy and Policy Foundations: HIS, data and evidence-informed policymaking

• Data Governance and Legal Frameworks

• Electronic Health Records (EHR) Systems

• Health Data Repositories and Utilization

• Interoperability and Standards

• Barriers to EHR System Implementation

• Barriers to Adopting Big Data & Advanced Analytics for Health

For each section, a color-coded summary table is available. Individual indicators are also available in the form of maps.

Indicators are drawn from the answers provided by Member States to the WHO/Europe Digital Health and AI Surveys (data collection for these took place in 2022 and 2024-2025, respectively) and from HIS assessment reports. HIS assessments are external evaluations carried out by WHO/Europe at the request of Ministries of Health, following a standardized methodology that involves a desk review and semi-structured interviews with key informants. This methodology was first published in 2015 and updated in 2021 and 2024. Because of substantial differences between the 2015 and the 2021/2024 versions, for the purpose of compiling this database, only assessment reports based on the 2021 or 2024 methodology were used. While the outcomes of the Digital Health Survey and AI Survey are publicly available, the HIS assessment reports are not – these are internal tools for the Ministries of Health of the assessed countries. Therefore, only high-level indicators describing whether certain HIS features are in place yes or no are taken from the assessment reports for the purpose of this database.

All 53 Member States of the WHO European Region responded to the Digital Health Survey (although for some Member States, not all survey questions were answered). 50 out of 53 Member States responded to the AI survey. No responses were received from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Monaco, and Turkmenistan. HIS assessment reports that met the above-described inclusion criterion and that had applied the full assessment methodology at the national level are available for 15 Member States: Armenia, Belarus, Czech Republic, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. These assessments were carried out between 2022 and 2025.

The publication of this database was co-funded by the European Union and is a deliverable of the EU Action to strengthen HIS and boost data governance across all 53 Member States of the WHO European Region.