News
Release of new SPHN Metadata Catalog features
Release of new SPHN Metadata Catalog features The Swiss Personalized Health Network (SPHN) Metadata Catalog is an online resource designed to help researchers discover ...
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BioMedIT helps shaping Europe’s blueprint for secure data sharing
BioMedIT strengthens Europe's blueprint for secure cross‑border sharing of sensitive data Swiss expertise is now contributing to EOSC‑ENTRUST, a Horizon Europe project developing a ...
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Advancing collaborative cohort research in Switzerland
Advancing collaborative cohort research in Switzerland Switzerland is home to a diverse landscape of high-quality cohort studies that generate valuable longitudinal health data. To ...
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The SPHN Annual Report 2025 is online
The SPHN Annual Report 2025 is online The Swiss Personalized Health Network (SPHN) presents its Annual Report 2025 and looks back on a transformative ...
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SPHN and Federal Statistical Office Strengthen Discoverability and Interoperability of Health Research Data
SPHN and Federal Statistical Office Strengthen Discoverability and Interoperability of Health Research Data The Swiss Personalized Health Network (SPHN) and the Swiss Federal Statistical ...
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Viktor Award 2025: Thank you!
Viktor Award 2025: Thank you! Swiss Personalized Health Network was nominated for the Viktor Award 2025 in the category "Pioneering Achievement in the Swiss ...
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New SPHN Sounding Board launched
New SPHN Sounding Board launched On 4 March 2026, the Sounding Board of the Swiss Personalized Health Network (SPHN) convened in Bern for its ...
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New tool: CPCR Service Finder for clinical research
A new tool to access services across organizations The CPCR Service Finder, a new collaborative, user-friendly tool, has been developed by the national Coordination ...
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New schema release: The SPHN journey continues
New schema release: The SPHN journey continues The SPHN Semantic Interoperability Framework's 2026.1 release improves consistency across the SPHN Schema and provides further alignments ...
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New healthcare institutions onboarded to SPHN
New healthcare institutions onboarded to SPHN Several cantonal hospitals and the Swiss Cancer Institute (SCI) are now ready to contribute clinical data to multi-site ...
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Clinical data from 800,000 Patients unlocked: Empowering health research with a large-scale, FAIR Dataset
Clinical data from 800,000 patients unlocked: Empowering health research with a large-scale, FAIR dataset from Switzerland SPHN has released the metadata of a uniquely ...
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Exploring data governance for data sharing at Swiss university hospitals
New publication: "Exploring data governance for data sharing at Swiss university hospitals" Local data governance bodies within health data providing institutions play a central ...
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A unified contractual framework for health data sharing
A unified contractual framework for health data sharing A newly published introductory reference paper provides practical information for the set-up of a contractual framework for ...
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SPHN acts as a trusted partner between hospitals and private companies
SPHN acts as a trusted partner between hospitals and private companies A new collaboration framework allows private partners to transform Swiss health data into ...
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The next phase for SPHN – an interview with the management
"If there is a shared will, almost any problem can be solved" With its new 2025-2028 mandate, SPHN has successfully entered the next phase ...
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More than 300 participants attended the “From Technology to Treatment” Conference
The conference, co-organized by SPHN and PHRT, showed how personalized medicine can improve patient care. Over two days, researchers presented their work and discussed ...
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New Schema Release: A major step toward FAIR medical imaging data
New Schema Release: A major step toward FAIR medical imaging data The latest release of the SPHN data model introduces a long-awaited, standardized framework ...
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Spotlight on the SPHN Metadata Catalog
Spotlight on the SPHN Metadata Catalog: Making Swiss health datasets more visible and reusable The SPHN Metadata Catalog addresses a key challenge in health ...
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Community survey: Tell us where you would set priorities for new data domains
Community survey: Tell us where you would set priorities for new data domains The Swiss Personalized Health Network has launched a community survey to ...
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SPHN introduces new governance structure and funding scheme
SPHN introduces new governance structure and funding scheme To cater to its new mandate, the Swiss Personalized Health Network adapts its governance structure and ...
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SPHN publishes paper on Schema Forge
SPHN publishes paper on a key tool for semantic health data modeling The scientific paper presents the SPHN Schema Forge, a tool that turns ...
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SPHN RDF Schema applied in international context
SPHN RDF Schema applied in international context Two research teams from France have successfully applied SPHN's data schema in their research project. Their work ...
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Registration open: From Technology to Treatment conference
From Technology to Treatment conference - register now Join us for this two-day conference hosted by SPHN and PHRT to explore the latest advances ...
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SPHN introduces medical imaging concepts
Imagine all the data - SPHN introduces medical imaging concepts for its data model Diagnostic imaging methods have become an integral part of medical ...
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Swiss Personalized Health Network ensures continuity
Swiss Personalized Health Network ensures continuity The development phase of the Swiss Personalized Health Network was successfully completed at the end of 2024. Over ...
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New group leader of the SIB Personalized Health Informatics Group
New group leader of the SIB Personalized Health Informatics Group Dr. Davide Chiarugi joins SPHN as the new leader of the SIB Personalized Health ...
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De-Identification – how to protect patient privacy effectively
De-Identification - how to protect patient privacy effectively Protecting patient privacy requires careful measures to de-identify health data. To address this, SPHN has developed ...
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Using genomic data in human research – new SPHN Guidance
Trusted framework for genomic data in human research: New SPHN Guidance In addition to offering significant opportunities for research, the secondary use of human ...
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New registry regulation template
New registry regulation template to set up purpose, structure and workflow This new template offers a comprehensive framework for establishing a health data registry. ...
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Why Switzerland needs a Swiss Trusted Research Environment
Research with sensitive data in Switzerland requires a Trusted Research Environment. In our new whitepaper we highlight how BioMedIT balances data access and security, ...
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How FHIR and SPHN could match up
In a two day workshop with experts from the Charité, Berlin, and our FAIR data team we explored possibilities to align SPHN concepts with ...
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SPHN releases the newest version of the SPHN Semantic Interoperability Framework
The SPHN Semantic Interoperability Framework's 2025.1 release brings targeted improvements, enhancing the current schema and offering broader, more detailed representation of genomic variants. The ...
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SPHN updates legal template for responsible data sharing
SPHN has updated its legal agreement template. This version builds on experiences from multi-site project negotiations. It addresses key legal requirements, ensuring secure and ...
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SPHN Factsheet 2024: Improving patient care with SPHN
Navigating health care research with sensitive data can be complex, but SPHN is here to help. The SPHN Factsheet 2024 highlights the network's most ...
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Strategic Collaboration between Swiss Digital Pathology Initiative and Swiss Personalized Health Network
SPHN teams up with the Swiss Digital Pathology Initiative. By integrating digital pathology data in the network, the initiatives aim to advance precision medicine ...
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Presentations of the Data for Health event are now available
The Data for Health symposium marked how far Switzerland has come over the last eight years in terms of personalized health. The slides of ...
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A new president for the Swiss Personalized Health Network
Prof. Matthias Baumgartner will take over as Chair of the Swiss Personalized Health Network (SPHN) in 2025, succeeding Urs Frey, who has led the ...
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Data for Health: Strengthening the community of data-driven health in Switzerland
Data helps improve patient treatment. The SPHN and PHRT initiatives have laid the groundwork for hospitals to share health data at scale for multi-center ...
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Improved search and analysis options: SPHN launches a new cross-hospital data query tool
SPHN is expanding its data query capabilities with the new Data Exploration and Analysis System (DEAS). DEAS, currently being piloted across Swiss university hospitals, ...
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Explore SPHN project metadata with the new SPHN Schema Scope
With this new SPHN metadata catalogue researchers can interactively visualize schemas and explore project metadata. It enables seamless navigation between datasets, improving interoperability within ...
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Cantonal hospitals are joining the Swiss Personalized Health Network
The Swiss Personalized Health Network has announced the launch of a new program designed to integrate cantonal hospitals into the SPHN and BioMedIT network. ...
Read More SPHN Mocker released
SPHN Mocker released 15 July 2024 The DCC announces the release of the SPHN Mocker, a Python library designed to facilitate the generation of ...
Read More Transnational health care research – carefully connecting the dots towards a European Health Data Space
In 2023, SPHN met with representatives of the German and Dutch national health research data initiatives (Medizininformatik-Initiative (MII) and Health-RI respectively) in Berlin to ...
Read More Looking back, looking ahead: Interview with Katrin Crameri and Thomas Geiger
27 June 2024 Many people contribute to the success of a national initiative like SPHN. In the two core teams in the SPHN Management ...
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All change and continuity in the DCC leadership
06.05.2024 After 5 years as Director of the SPHN Data Coordination Center (DCC) and Group Leader of the SIB Personalized Health Informatics Group, Dr. ...
Read More SPHN: Solid basis for AI in local medicine
26 March 2024 The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into health research and care promises many advances for the future. At the technical level, ...
Read More Where are the bottlenecks to health data sharing in Switzerland?
The Swiss Personalized Health Network (SPHN) initiative coordinates the development of infrastructures for the responsible use of health-related data in research throughout Switzerland. The ...
Read More SAVE THE DATE: “Data for Health” symposium
Over the past eight years, the collaborative efforts of the Swiss Personalized Health Network (SPHN) initiative and the Personalized Health & Related Technologies (PHRT) ...
Read More SPHN in the spotlight of the «health terminal» podcast
Why do we need an initiative that puts efforts in the creation of infrastructures that enable the use of health data, particularly from routine ...
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FOPH research concept “Health 2025-2028”
09.01.2024 The research concept Health defines the Confederation's research activities and priodities in the filed of health for the years 2025-28. The use of ...
Read More IAB report 2023
The SPHN International Advisory Board (IAB) has been involved in the evolution of the initiative since the very beginning. With the exception of the time ...
Read More Boosting the digital transformation of the Swiss healthcare system
In comparison to other countries, Switzerland has a very good healthcare system and is known as one of the strongest locations for research and ...
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SPHN Connector: Public release of our open-source tool
SPHN Connector: Public release of our open-source tool We are happy to announce the public release of the SPHN Connector version 1.3.0 - a ...
Read More SPHN Factsheet 2023
Download Factsheet 2023 The Swiss Personalized Health Network (SPHN) coordinates the development of an infrastructure for the responsible use of health-related data for research ...
Read More Susanne Driessen as new ELSIag Chair, farewell and thank you to Effy Vayena
Effy Vayena has been a dedicated contributor to the SPHN initiative from its inception. As chair of the ELSI Advisory Group (ELSIag) E. Vayena ...
Read More SPHN Technical Newsletter 4/23
19 September 2023 Access the online version of the SPHN Technical Newsletter here. Subscribe to receive future newsletters directly in your inbox. Communications Preferences ...
Read More Report on the consolidation of SPHN infrastructures
The Swiss Personalized Health Network (SPHN) initiative coordinates the development of infrastructures for the responsible use of health-related data in research throughout Switzerland. The ...
Read More Legal framework established for National Data Streams
The Swiss Personalized Health Network and its partner initiative Personalized Health and Related Technologies (PHRT) from the ETH Domain have reached a major milestone for ...
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Towards the European Health Data Space
Translated from the Press Release (download) by: Medical Informatics Initiative Support structure - Office of the National Steering Committee c/o TMF e. V. ∙ ...
Read More The consolidated SPHN-DCC will continue from 2025 on
In 2017, the SPHN initiative was launched on behalf of the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) and the Federal Office of ...
Read More SPHN Technical Newsletter 2/2023
31 May 2023 Access the online version of the SPHN Technical Newsletter here. Subscribe to receive future newsletters directly in your inbox. Communications ...
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Release of the SPHN Schema Forge web service and the SPHN Dataset2RDF Tool.
The SPHN Semantic Interoperability Framework builds a complete ecosystem around Semantic Web technologies to make health-related data FAIR. From an Excel-based SPHN Dataset, SPHN ...
Read More SPHN Technical Newsletter 1/2023
20 March 2023 Access the online version of the SPHN Technical Newsletter here. Subscribe to receive future newsletters directly in your inbox. Communications ...
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Reflections on the SWAT4HCLS Conference in Basel
By: Deepak Unni, Scientific Coordinator, SIB PHI Group The use of Semantic Web technologies for organizing knowledge has had increasing adoption in recent years. ...
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SPHN Dataset & RDF Schema 2023 release
Today marks a significant achievement for the Swiss Personalized Health Network (SPHN) with the announcement of the 2023 version (2023.2) of the SPHN Semantic ...
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SPHN supports 11 Demonstrator projects with CHF 4.3 M
Two types of Demonstrator projects are supported: On the one hand, projects that test the practical application of SPHN infrastructure components in medical research ...
Read More SPHN Technical Newsletter 3/2022
Access the online version of the SPHN Technical Newsletter here. Subscribe to receive future newsletters directly in your inbox Communications Preferences Subscribe to all ...
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SPHN quality control tools
SPHN Quality Control Tools 21.07.2022 Ensuring data quality is of the utmost importance for personalized health research. Validation of data can be a cumbersome ...
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SPHN Factsheet 2022
07.06.2022 What does SPHN do for researchers? The new SPHN Factsheet has the answers. Take a look at the SPHN infrastructures, tools and services that ...
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SPHN Dataset & RDF schema new release
Today, SPHN releases the 2022.1 edition of the SPHN Semantic Interoperability Framework package including the SPHN Dataset (Pillar 1) and the SPHN RDF schema ...
Read More SPHN Technical Newsletter 02/22
Access the online version of the SPHN Technical Newsletter here. Subscribe to receive future newsletters directly in your inbox Communications Preferences Subscribe to ...
Read More SPHN & PHRT support 4 National Data Streams
In 2021, SPHN and PHRT jointly launched the call for "National Data Streams" (NDS). After a two-step evaluation procedure, 4 NDS projects have been ...
Read More De-identification of health-related data
Guidance on how to de-identify health-related data in compliance with Swiss legislation 20.05.22 The de-identification of health-related data postulates one essential approach to protect ...
Read More SPHN launches its Call for Demonstrator projects
SPHN has launched its call for "Demonstrator" projects. These projects aim to demonstrate the added value of SPHN data resources and infrastructure elements for ...
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The Swiss Federal Council wants to enable research to make better use of health data
The Swiss Federal Council wants to enable research to make better use of health data Infrastructures built and insights gained by SPHN are central ...
Read More Save the Date: 2nd Joint Personalized Health Day
The 2nd Personalized Health Day aims to make the achievements of SPHN and the ETH Strategic Focus Area «Personalized Health and Related Technologies» (PHRT) ...
Read More SPHN Technical Newsletter 01/22
Access the online version of the SPHN Technical Newsletter here. Subscribe to receive future newsletters directly in your inbox Communications Preferences Subscribe to ...
Read More Save the Date: Call for Demonstrator projects
Demonstrator projects aim to demonstrate the added value of the SPHN data resources and infrastructure elements for data-driven personalized health research, clinical and public ...
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Another occasion for Swiss cohorts to join the SPHN Cohort Consortium on the international Maelstrom catalogue!
To promote findability of cohort data, SPHN launches an additional call for letters of intent for Swiss cohort studies interested in join the Maelstrom ...
Read More SPHN as ICPerMed Best Practice example in Personalised Medicine
Successful approaches for personalised medicine are becoming a reality. To show this, the International Consortium for Personalized Medicine (ICPerMed) features best practice examples. These ...
Read More ICPerMed “Best Practice in Personalised Medicine” Recognition 2021 – open for applications
Since 2017 SPHN is full member of the International Consortium for Personalized Medicine (ICPerMed). Recently, ICPerMed launched its fourth Recognition to honour, encourage, promote ...
Read More SPHN Technical Newsletter 2/2021
Access the online version of the SPHN Technical Newsletter here. Subscribe to receive future newsletters directly in your inbox Communications Preferences Subscribe to ...
Read More Guidelines for the creation of a Data Management Plan
A solid data management plan over the entire project life cycle is essential for the development of FAIR research data. This includes data collection ...
Read More SPHN issues guidelines for ethical health data sharing in public private partnerships
SPHN is building a dynamic, scalable network of data providers to leverage the potential of health-related data for the benefit of society. Data generated ...
Read More Renewal of the Collaboration Agreements until 2024
At the beginning of 2018, SPHN and the five university hospitals signed collaboration agreements for building interoperable clinical data management systems. Thereby, the foundation ...
Read More SPHN Technical Newsletter 1/2021
Access the online version of the SPHN Technical Newsletter here. Subscribe to receive future newsletters directly in your inbox Communications Preferences Subscribe to ...
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The SPHN Federated Query System is online!
The SPHN Federated Query System is online! Information retrieval systems enabling researchers to query for specific clinical information of patients have so far been ...
Read More New Hospital IT Strategy Alignment Group
With the conclusion of the first funding phase 2017-2020 and the onset of phase II (2021-2024), SPHN had reached a critical turning point: Emphasized ...
Read More The SPHN Ecosystem Towards FAIR Data
SPHN announces the comprehensive release of the SPHN FAIR Data Ecosystem, summarized in our recent preprint*. A flexible graph-based schema for data representation is ...
Read More The SPHN Network on Maelstrom is growing!
Swiss cohorts house high-quality and cost-intensive data collections which see their value often hindered by a lack of visibility. As part of its commitment ...
Read More SPHN National Advisory Board (NAB)
Prof. Antoine Geissbühler is the new Chair of the National Advisory Board (NAB) of SPHN, succeeding Prof. Torsten Schwede. To strengthen the expertise of ...
Read More BioMedIT Report 2017-2020
In 2017, the Swiss Confederation decided to fund the BioMedIT network project, as integral part of SPHN. As a project of SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, ...
Read More Joint Call for Proposals: National Data Streams (NDS)
On the road towards establishing a Swiss personalized health ecosystem, SPHN and PHRT have launched a joint call for proposals for National Data Streams ...
Read More SPHN calls Swiss cohorts to join the international Maelstrom catalogue
Switzerland has a long tradition of high-quality cohort studies collecting a large variety of health-related data. In order to exploit their full potential, the ...
Read More SPHN Interoperability Framework with new RDF schema for data exchange
SPHN gladly announces the new release of the SPHN Semantic Interoperability Framework including the SPHN Dataset (Pillar 1) and the SPHN RDF schema (Pillar ...
Read More Save the date: National Data Streams
SPHN and PHRT will launch the long-awaited Call for National Data Streams on 1 June 2021. Stay tuned – all information will be released ...
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Call for candidatures: Election to become a member of the SPHN National Advisory Board
The National Advisory Board (NAB) is a consulting body of the Swiss Personalized Health Network Initiative (SPHN) with the following mandate: Infrastructure Roadmap: Provide ...
Read More SPHN: a mid-term report in SAMS Bulletin 1/2021
The focus of this year's first SAMS Bulletin is dedicated to SPHN. As the first SPHN funding period 2017-2020 has come to an end, ...
Read More Changes at the SPHN Management Office
Thomas Geiger is the new Managing Director of SPHN as of 1 March 2021, after an ad interim period during which the Management Office ...
Read More New Publication: Report from the National Steering Board 2016 – 2019
The report of the National Steering Board, published in the Swiss Academies Reports series, presents the many infrastructures, technologies and methods that SPHN and ...
Read More SPHN in the BMS – the Future of Medicine is Personalized
SPHN is featured in edition 102(4) of the Bulletin des médecins suisses; "Over the last twenty years, personalized medicine has established itself as a ...
Read More SPHN funding period 2021-2024
The Confederation renews the mandate of the Swiss Academies of Medical Sciences (SAMS) and the SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics for a second SPHN ...
Read More Legal agreement templates for collaborative research projects
The contractual architecture for a collaborative use of health-related data depends on the project specifications and responsibilities of the parties involved. The new, modular ...
Read More SPHN Fact-Sheet 2020 – Where do we stand today
Find out about the current status of the initiative, its perspectives and goals for the next funding period, and its impact on society - ...
Read More Health Genomics within SPHN – Poster from 8th GA4GH Plenary Meeting
SPHN was represented at the 8th Plenary of GA4GH with a poster highlighting the FAIRification of Health Genomics Data in Switzerland. The 8th Plenary ...
Read More Goodbye and Thank you, Adrien Lawrence
The Swiss Personalized Health Network (SPHN) was launched in 2016 with the aim of facilitating the use and exchange of health data for research. ...
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Strengthening the health data-driven ecosystem in Switzerland: academia and pharma industry agree on common foundations to jointly improve technical and semantical data interoperability in Switzerland
When clinical data from different sources are combined for research projects, interoperability is key: the meaning of data has to be interpretable for humans ...
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Reporting actionable genetic findings to research participants
The ELSI Advisory Group has developed guidance for 'Reporting Actionable Genetic Findings to Research Participants'. The document contains recommendations that suggest mechanisms to support ...
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No more time for quick wins
Article by Dr. Katrin Crameri in MIRACUM Journal #3, March 2020 (translation of the original German text) The efforts are enormous, but there is no ...
Read More New National Advisory Board
Following an overall review of the initiative in 2019, the National Steering Board (NSB) of SPHN decided to create a National Advisory Board (NAB) ...
Read More We are here for you – working from home
The SPHN Management Office and the Personalized Health Informatics group are working from home until further notice. You can contact our collaborators by email. ...
Read More SPHN in a nutshell
Between September and December 2019, SPHN reported and illustrated the activities of the last two years. In the SPHN fact-sheet, an overview of the ...
Read More Welcome to the new sphn.ch website
Revamped in January 2020, the SPHN Website now functions as a one-stop-shop for all stakeholders and contributors in the realm of the Swiss Personalized ...
Read More First review report of the International Advisory Board
December 2019 As per the Rules of Procedure and its mandate, the International Advisory Board (IAB) of SPHN has to provide a review on ...
Read More University Hospital IT departments join forces within SPHN: welcome to the new Hospital IT Working Group of the DCC
The new Hospital IT Working Group of the DCC brings together representatives of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) departments of the five University ...
Read More Interview with Katrin Crameri and Torsten Schwede, passing the baton
On 1 March 2019, Katrin Crameri took over the leadership of the Personalized Health Informatics (PHI) Group responsible for the Data Coordination Center of ...
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