Review of: "Advancing Personal Health Data Spaces: Governance, Interoperability, and Real-World Evidence for Learning Healthcare Systems"

Abstract

This manuscript presents a timely, ambitious, and highly relevant commentary on the role of Personal Health Data Spaces in the future development of healthcare.I appreciate its patient-centred perspective and its recognition that personalised medicine cannot be achieved through isolated technological solutions, fragmented clinical information, or disconnected research initiatives.The manuscript addresses a sensitive but fundamental problem: healthcare systems are still often organised in professional, institutional, and data-related silos.In practice, individual clinical units, specialists, and researchers may work with considerable expertise, but too often within separate perspectives and infrastructures.This can lead to duplication, incomplete understanding of the patient journey, inconsistent data use, and missed opportunities for collaboration.From my own professional experience, I recognise this fragmentation.Major clinical and scienti c questions are rarely solved by a single specialty, clinic, institution, or data source.The development of meaningful personalised treatment requires integration across clinical disciplines, longitudinal patient data, imaging, laboratory and genomic information, patient-reported outcomes, real-world evidence, and rigorous analytical methods.A particular strength of the manuscript is its distinction between Personal Health Data Spaces and related concepts such as the European Health Data Space, federated data infrastructures, real-world evidence platforms, and learning healthcare systems.