The SekundDaten study focuses on the secondary use of health data in electronic health records and highlights the regulatory and legal frameworks as well as implementation aspects in five study countries: Finland, France, Netherlands, the United Kingdom (NHS England) and Portugal. Specifically, the study examines the legal possibilities for secondary use (health care research, industrial and non-industrial clinical and medical research and public health), data protection and security, and the actual use of patient data. The aim was to classify and compare the experiences of other countries in the light of the German legal situation. Six policy impulses for a more innovation-friendly use of health data in Germany conclude the study report.