SPHN FedData

Note

This page documents the SPHN FedData as described in the preprint “Semantic Interoperability at National Scale: The SPHN Federated Clinical Routine Dataset” (Armida et al., 2025, Research Square, doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-8250886/v2).

The SPHN Federated Clinical Routine Dataset (SPHN FedData) is a large-scale, semantically standardized collection of clinical routine data from Swiss university hospitals, built on the SPHN Semantic Interoperability Framework. It is designed to be FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) while keeping patient-level data strictly within each participating institution.

The SPHN FedData is the concrete instantiation of the SPHN three-pillar strategy presented pillar-strategy. It constitute to date, the largest harmonized and FAIR clinical routine dataset ever assembled in Switzerland.

Key Statistics

Metric	Value
Patients (broad consent)	800,000+
RDF Triples	12.5 billion
SPHN concepts mapped	125
Participating hospitals	6
Time coverage	2018 – present

Dataset Scope

Participating Hospitals

As of 2026, six Swiss university hospitals contribute to the SPHN FedData:

Hospital	Abbreviation	City
University Children’s Hospital Zurich	KISPI	Zurich
University Hospital Basel	USB	Basel
University Hospital Bern (Inselspital)	INSEL	Bern
University Hospital Geneva	HUG	Geneva
University Hospital Lausanne	CHUV	Lausanne
University Hospital Zurich	USZ	Zurich

Patient Eligibility & Consent

Inclusion criteria take into account that patients:

• have signed the Swiss broad consent (referred to as “general consent” in Switzerland)

• have had at least one clinical case documented from 2018 onwards.

Note

Broad consent permits secondary use of patient-level health data for as-yet undefined research projects. All included data were mapped to SPHN RDF Schema 2025.1.

Data Access

Due to the sensitive nature of clinical data and Swiss data protection law, direct access to patient-level RDF triples is subject to formal data access governance procedure defined at each participating hospital. However, the metadata of this dataset is publicly available.

Metadata Access (Open)

Metadata, summary statistics, and concept-level counts are publicly accessible without data access agreements via:

• The SPHN Metadata Catalog

• The SPHN Schema Scope (interactive visual exploration).

Patient-Level Data Access (Restricted)

Access to patient-level SPHN FedData for research purposes requires:

1. A scientific research project approved by the relevant ethics committee(s).

2. A data transfer and use agreement (DTUA) with each participating hospital whose data are requested.

3. Compliance with each hospital’s data governance and security requirements.

Important

If you need support in requesting access to hospital data or have questions to the contractual framework enabling health data usage, you may contact our helpdesk: elsi@sphn.ch

SPHN Concepts Available

A total of 125 SPHN Concepts are instantiated in the SPHN FedData. Below is listed the ‘core’ concepts grouped into categories:

Category	SPHN Concept
Administrative	Administrative Case, Consent, Follow Up, Healthcare Encounter, Insurance Status, Resuscitation Directive
Clinical Condition	Access Device Presence, Allergy, Assessment Event, Billed Diagnosis, Diagnosis, Implant Presence, Nursing Diagnosis, Problem Condition, Transplant Presence
Demographics	Administrative Sex, Age, Birth, Civil Status, Death, Home Address, Nationality
Measurement	Blood Pressure Measurement, Body Height Measurement, Body Mass Index, Body Position, Body Surface Area, Body Temperature Measurement, Body Weight Measurement, Cardiac Index, Cardiac Output Measurement, Circumference Measurement, Fluid Balance, Fluid Input Output, Gestational Age At Birth, Heart Rate Measurement, Nutrition Intake, Oxygen Saturation Measurement, Respiratory Rate Measurement, Time Series Data File
Medical Procedure	Billed Procedure, Electrocardiographic Procedure, Imaging Procedure, Organ Support, Radiotherapy Procedure
Medication and Treatment	Drug Administration Event, Drug Prescription, Oxygen Administration Event
Oncology	Oncology Diagnosis, Oncology Surgery, Tumor Grade Assessment Event, Tumor Stage Assessment Event

Note

SPHN core concepts are those which are directly linked to the Subject Pseudo Identifier concept (i.e., the patient), and therefore represent patient-level information. The other concepts are necessarily reused (directly or indirectly) in core concepts.

A full list of all available concepts is accessible at: FedData Metadata Analysis.

Terminologies Used

A key strength of the SPHN FedData is the reuse of internationally recognized terminologies and coding systems.

The following terminologies are used for coding data elements in the SPHN FedData:

Terminology / System	Abbreviation	Count Unique Codes
Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine – Clinical Terms	SNOMED CT	6 518
Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes	LOINC	3 693
International Classification of Diseases, 10th Rev. (German Modification)	ICD-10-GM	12 540
Swiss Procedure Classification (Catalogue des opérations)	CHOP	14 244
Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical Classification	ATC	1 996
Orphanet Rare Disease ontology	ORDO	1 950
Unified Code for Units of Measure	UCUM	199

SNOMED CT sunburst plot

Explore the hierarchical distribution of SNOMED CT code instances in the SPHN FedData using the interactive sunburst plot below. Click on any segment to drill down into specific concept groups and examine their relative frequencies.

LOINC sunburst plot

Explore the distribution of LOINC code instances in the SPHN FedData using the interactive sunburst plot below. Click on any segment to drill down into specific concept groups and examine their relative frequencies.