New Schema Release: A major step toward FAIR medical imaging data 

With medical imaging data becoming increasingly abundant in hospitals and research institutions, many challenges around their FAIR use, reuse, and integration remain unresolved. The 2025.2 release of the SPHN Semantic Interoperability Framework marks a major milestone in addressing these issues. 

The new release introduces a dedicated set of Medical Imaging concepts - modular, structured components designed to represent key aspects of imaging data. This extension has been developed by the SPHN Data Coordination Center in collaboration with leading medical imaging experts. It includes concepts for imaging modalities, datasets, pseudonymized metadata, imaging devices, reagents, and involves widely used imaging standards such as DICOM. 

These additions significantly expand SPHN’s ability to support research involving imaging datasets and enable new opportunities for data-driven analyses. They also lay the groundwork for closer collaboration with national initiatives focusing on medical imaging. 

In addition to the imaging-focused developments, the new version 2025.2 features and evolves core elements of the SPHN Semantic Interoperability Framework: 

• SPHN Dataset & RDF Schema: Medical imaging concepts integrated seamlessly into the existing SPHN data model. 

• Terminology Service: DICOM standard is provided in RDF 

• Templates and Tools: Updated to support the new imaging domain, including SPHN Schema Scope, the interactive schema visualization platform. 

This release is a pivotal step toward making complex imaging data FAIR, interoperable, and machine-actionable thus accelerating personalized health research across Switzerland.