The Swiss Personalized Health Network (SPHN) facilitates the secure use and exchange of health data for research in Switzerland. With the implementation phase successfully completed at the end of 2024, the focus for the next four years is on maintaining and further establishing the network’s pioneering services and infrastructures. SIB will continue to coordinate the secure BioMedIT infrastructure and implement FAIR data standards in this new consolidation phase.
Enabling medical innovation for personalized health care
Since its launch as a federal initiative eight years ago, the Swiss Personalized Health Network has established pioneering data infrastructures that make high-quality patient data discoverable and securely available for research in Switzerland. With over 1,000 researchers and clinicians now involved across the country, and consented data available from over 700,000 patients, SPHN enables new scientific findings that can improve patient care through innovations in personalized medicine.
SPHN’s implementation from 2017-2024 was coordinated by the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences (SAMS) and SIB. Our teams played a key role in establishing Swiss-wide standards for FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) health data and implementing BioMedIT, a national Trusted Research Environment that enables secure exchange and processing of these data for research. SPHN further established a national legal and ethical framework for regulatory-compliant data exchange with support from SIB.
Federal support for the next phase of SPHN
The Swiss Confederation plans to support the consolidation of SPHN as a sustainable national infrastructure over the next four years, through funding of CHF 20.7 million for its Data Coordination Center (DCC). SAMS is responsible for the mandate of the SPHN DCC during this 2025-2028 federal funding period and will continue the successful collaboration with SIB. Our teams will continue to implement FAIR data standards and coordinate BioMedIT.
The focus for 2025-2028 will be on increasing efficiency and further establishing the SPHN DCC as a competence and service centre for FAIR health data, by strengthening its infrastructures and services. These include:
- national coordination of FAIR health data;
- ensuring the legal and ethical framework for data use;
- ensuring data interoperability between partners;
- a platform for searching and analysing standardized data;
- the BioMedIT infrastructure;
- a national repository for genetic data;
- the provision of standardized data from hospitals (National Data Streams).
SERI previously financed SPHN’s implementation in the last two funding periods with CHF 68 and 67 million, respectively. Swiss universities and hospitals additionally contributed matching funds to SPHN-supported projects during the implementation phase and will continue to provide matching funds over the next four years.
At the start of the initiative, people questioned why and if we should share health data. Today, everyone focuses on how this can be done in the most efficient and responsible way.
New partnerships and funding models
SPHN is closely collaborating and coordinating with the DigiSanté programme – an initiative of the Federal Office of Public Health and the Federal Statistical Office that is orchestrating the digital transformation of Swiss healthcare and quality assurance. Additional projects and mandates for SPHN are also currently being clarified.
SPHN supported over 60 research and infrastructure projects with federal funding over the past eight years; however funding for specific research projects was discontinued at the end of the implementation phase. In the future, research projects will contribute to financing data use and further infrastructure development through project-related service fees.
From 2029, SPHN aims to be an integral part of Switzerland’s national data infrastructure in a new form. A concept for this will be developed over the next few years.
