Swiss_Personalized_Health_Network
Swiss Personalized Health Network
Swiss medical research project
The Swiss Personalized Health Network initiative (SPHN) was established in 2017 by the government of Switzerland. It is intended to develop personalized medicine and personalized health in Switzerland by harnessing previously segregated health data through establishing a harmonized framework on how to make different data formats interoperable (semantic interoperability) and by building a secure, coordinated IT infrastructure network, across Switzerland.[1]
SPHN integrates health data from many electronic sources in line with Switzerland’s federalism. SPHN rallies all Swiss stakeholders - from key clinical, research-, research support institutions and patient organizations - around the same table[2] and builds upon (and supports) existing resources in Switzerland.
SPHN was commissioned by the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation and the Federal Office of Public Health.[3] Both the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences (SAMS) and the SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB) are responsible for the implementation of the mandate. A total of CHF 68 million was allocated to the initiative for the period 2017-2020.
The ethical, legal and social implications of personalized medicine are central to SPHN. Therefore, the SPHN Ethical, Legal and Societal Implications Advisory Group (ELSIag)[4] was setup and tasked to address key ethical, legal and societal challenges that are relevant to the SPHN’s activities.[5]