Patient empowerment and health data reuse: What changes in the age of AI?
Artificial intelligence is transforming healthcare and health research, while simultaneously increasing the importance of access to and reuse of health data. Against this background, questions about patient empowerment acquire new dimensions. What does it mean for patients to have control over their health data, and does the growing development and use of AI change what meaningful empowerment requires?
This presentation explores these questions against the evolving European legal and policy landscape. It considers different dimensions of patient empowerment and data control, including individual rights and choices as well as collective and participatory approaches to the governance of health data. Particular attention is paid to the interplay between the GDPR, the European Health Data Space and the AI Act, and to how these frameworks shape the position of patients in research and innovation.
Drawing on empirical research into patients’ knowledge and perspectives regarding data control and the reuse of health data for research, the presentation will reflect on how existing approaches to patient empowerment translate into an increasingly AI-enabled environment, and identify emerging legal, ethical and governance questions for health data reuse in the age of AI.
Session Moderator: Danaja Fabčič Povše
Speakers
Dr. Teodora Lalova-Spinks
KU Leuven, Centre for IT & IP law (CiTiP) and Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Dr. Teodora Lalova-Spinks is a lawyer by training, specialising in data protection and health research. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at KU Leuven, working on a project about patient empowerment and data reuse in health research, for which she was awarded a junior postdoctoral fellowship by the Research Foundation-Flanders (FWO). Previously, she was a postdoctoral researcher at Ghent University, working on transdisciplinary projects supported by the King Baudouin Foundation, a visiting researcher at Stanford University, and a fellow at the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC). She holds an interdisciplinary PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Laws from KU Leuven (2023), for which she was awarded a PhD fellowship by FWO.
Date/Time
10 November 2026 | 14.00 - 16.00
Location
VUB Main Campus | Learning & Innovation Center (LIC) - Learning Theater
Address: Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Etterbeek, Brussels
Direct access to LIC Building via Pleinlaan (Entrance 13) or Triomflaan (Entrance 6)
Registration
This is an in-person event, free of charge for all participants.
Registration to the event is mandatory. You can register here: HELT Talks 2026/27 | Session 02 - Registration Form
Contact
For questions or further information regarding this session, please contact Danaja at danaja.fabcic.povse@vub.be