Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42447472›Full record

ArticleJMIR medical informatics2026

The Swiss Personalized Health Network Metadata Catalog: Platform for Health Data Discovery and Exploration Based on Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable Principles.

Harald Witte, Deepak Raveendran Unni, Philip Krauss, Vasundra Touré, Jan Armida, Sabine Österle

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in JMIR medical informatics, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Harald Witte *Swiss Personalized Health Network, SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Elisabethenstrasse 43, Basel, 4051, Switzerland, 41 765395411.ORCID 0000-0002-4421-3580
Deepak Raveendran Unni *Swiss Personalized Health Network, SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Elisabethenstrasse 43, Basel, 4051, Switzerland, 41 765395411.ORCID 0000-0002-3583-7340
Philip KraussAccenture (Switzerland), Basel, Switzerland.ORCID 0009-0004-8850-0532
Vasundra TouréSwiss Personalized Health Network, SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Elisabethenstrasse 43, Basel, 4051, Switzerland, 41 765395411.ORCID 0000-0003-4639-4431
Jan ArmidaSwiss Personalized Health Network, SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Elisabethenstrasse 43, Basel, 4051, Switzerland, 41 765395411.ORCID 0009-0007-4250-3983
Sabine ÖsterleSwiss Personalized Health Network, SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Elisabethenstrasse 43, Basel, 4051, Switzerland, 41 765395411.ORCID 0000-0003-3248-7899

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Background: The Swiss Personalized Health Network (SPHN) facilitates the interoperability and secure sharing of health-related data for research in Switzerland, in line with the findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) principles. Since medical datasets can be highly sensitive, access is often governed by complex legal and regulatory requirements. Enabling researchers to discover, understand, and evaluate datasets through rich, well-structured metadata is therefore essential to support informed decisions about data suitability and reuse. Objective: This study describes the design and functionality of the SPHN Metadata Catalog and its role in supporting the discovery, exploration, and reuse assessment of health-related datasets. Methods: The SPHN Metadata Catalog is a FAIR Data Point-compliant infrastructure that provides rich, structured metadata in both human and machine-readable form. Dataset descriptions are based on the HealthDCAT (Health Data Catalog Vocabulary) Application Profile, ensuring a standardized representation of health data catalogs. Beyond the descriptive metadata typically offered by other catalogs, the SPHN Metadata Catalog includes extensive dataset-level statistics expressed using the Vocabulary of Interlinked Datasets. An interactive visualization component further enables users to explore graph-based schemas and datasets, including entities, attributes, relationships, and their relative abundances. Results: The SPHN Metadata Catalog enables users to explore the semantic structure of graph schemas and statistics of datasets prior to requesting access. Researchers can examine data structures, relationships, attributes, and the abundances of individual data elements. This functionality supports feasibility assessments and informed evaluations of dataset suitability and reuse conditions. Conclusions: By combining HealthDCAT Application Profile-based descriptions with rich statistical metadata and interactive exploration capabilities, the SPHN Metadata Catalog enhances dataset discoverability and supports FAIR-compliant data reuse. As a key component of Switzerland's health data research infrastructure, the SPHN Metadata Catalog provides a foundation for future interoperability initiatives, including potential alignment with emerging frameworks such as the European Health Data Space.

Indexed as

MetadataPrecision MedicineHumansSwitzerlanddata visualizationDCATFAIR Data PointHealthDCATmetadata catalogschema visualizationsemantic webSPHNW3C semantic standards

Identifiers

PMID42447472
PMCPMC13367950

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.