Spotlight on the SPHN Metadata Catalog: Making Swiss health datasets more visible and reusable
The SPHN Metadata Catalog addresses a key challenge in health data research: how to make datasets discoverable without exposing sensitive content. By offering detailed metadata on existing datasets and their structure, it enables researchers to identify relevant sources for their projects - without compromising data privacy.
22. 07. 2025
Preparation of high-quality clinical data requires a lot of time and effort, as well as considerable funding. This has led to a growing demand for transparent, interoperable, and reusable health datasets. The SPHN Metadata Catalog offers a practical solution to a common challenge: How can datasets be made more visible and useful, even when direct sharing is restricted?
The answer is as simple as impactful: By sharing the rich metadata. The SPHN Metadata Catalog is a cornerstone of Switzerland’s open and FAIR health data ecosystem, making data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable. Developed as part of the Swiss Personalized Health Network, the catalog enables researchers and institutions to describe, discover, and share metadata about clinical and health-related datasets, without exposing sensitive data.
A Central Access Point for FAIR Health Datasets in Switzerland
Built on international standards like Data Catalog Vocabulary (DCAT) and the FAIR Data Point Specification, the SPHN Metadata Catalog ensures that metadata is both human-readable and machine-actionable, laying the groundwork for scalable and reproducible health research across institutions.
At the heart of the platform is the SPHN FAIR Data Point, the catalog to browse different datasets from different projects within the SPHN. It is complemented by the SPHN Schema Scope, an interactive visualization tool that lets users explore the structure and semantics of available datasets as well as the counts of the available data concepts. This allows researchers to assess whether a dataset meets their needs before initiating formal access procedures, saving time and fostering more efficient collaboration.
Whether you're a clinical researcher seeking to improve the visibility of your dataset, a data steward aligning with FAIR principles, or part of an infrastructure team working on interoperability, the SPHN Metadata Catalog is your entry point to making Swiss health datasets more findable, reusable, and impactful. As more datasets are added, the catalog will continue to grow- expanding opportunities for collaborative and data reuse in health research in Switzerland.
Would you like to publish metadata of datasets in the SPHN Metadata Catalog?
Contact fair-data-team@sib.swiss