Rapidly growing health-related data have the potential to improve health and healthcare, as well as to make health systems more efficient and focused on patients' needs. Their efficient and secure management represents major technological, organizational and societal challenges. Currently too compartmentalized and insufficiently accessible, these data are often in the hands of private providers and their collection does not necessarily guarantee data security and privacy protection. Professionals as well as some private for-profit companies are on the lookout for this new digital "gold". It is therefore urgent to define a democratic and legal framework for the governance, collection and use of health data in the highly decentralized and fragmented Swiss context.