Welcome to this first episode of season 3, and a great way to start with a conversation with Prof Dipak Kalra, formerly a Primary Care Practitioner in London, UK, academic at University College London, and Ghent University, and President of the Institute for Innovation through Health Data (i~HD). Dipak is internationally known and renowned with a reputation for cogent and clear thinking around health data, data interoperability and quality, and policy development, with i~HD being a leading European-based organisation dedicated to advancing the field.  In this episode Dipak reverts back to his experiences in general practice in the 1980s, and the advent of electronic health records systems being introduced also to support use of data for research, albeit with underlying challenges around ethics and privacy governance, which of course still pervade to today. We discuss some of the challenges around ethics of data use, and privacy preserving aspects, as well as some of the more recent innovations, while focusing on the balance between risks of harms, versus benefits for patients themselves. Dipak outlines the vision and direction of i~HD, from its origin in the IMI EHR4CR project, today and in the future, particularly regarding collaboration and safer use of health data, data quality, best practice, and policy development in this domain at a European level. Ultimately, i~HD acts as a neutral catalyst in addressing development and innovation. Lastly, Dipak describes the vision he has for health data use, RWD/RWE and a 21st century frameworks to meet the explosive need for evidence, , avoiding 'bureaucratic processes' and ensuring enhanced efficiency in generating RWE.