eHealth Suisse

In Switzerland, responsibility for organising and providing healthcare lies with the cantons (authorisation of healthcare institutions, contributions to healthcare professionals’ training, regulation of healthcare professions, public health literacy, etc.) To have an impact, however, eHealth projects have to be able to function beyond cantonal boundaries. People in Switzerland are highly mobile these days – they move house, change medical practice or go on outings to other regions. In addition, the healthcare professions are becoming ever more specialised. As a result, patients’ treatment often involves several healthcare professionals. Important health information that is needed for treatment is often unavailable at the crucial moment.

Linking up all the digital healthcare data nationally will help resolve this problem. The Confederation and cantons therefore concluded a framework agreement in 2007 to establish  a joint Competence and Coordination Centre – eHealth Suisse – which coordinated the implementation of the two Swiss eHealth strategies between 2007 and 2024. Since 2017, eHealth Suisse has also been responsible for formal enforcement tasks arising from the Federal Act on the Electronic Patient Record (EPRA). It coordinates the implementation of the national EPR project in collaboration with the FOPH, the Swiss Conference of the Cantonal Ministers of Public Health (CMPH), the EPR communities and other partners operating in the healthcare and digital health sectors.

To support the interoperability of health data throughout Switzerland, eHealth Suisse works with Swiss and European standardisation organisations, develops exchange formats and promotes the use of national and international standards in the eHealth sector. It also publishes recommendations for mobile applications (mHealth). Since 2025, eHealth Suisse has been supporting DigiSanté projects with the selection and development of standards and the harmonisation of registers. As the National Release Centre for SNOMED CT – the world’s most comprehensive clinical terminology for the coding of medical information – eHealth Suisse offers free usage of the license in Switzerland.

The Federal Department of Home Affairs (FDHA) and Swiss Conference of the Cantonal Ministers of Public Health (CMPH) have renewed the framework agreement on the eHealth Suisse Competence and Coordination Centre. This agreement governs collaboration between the Confederation and the cantons regarding implementation of the Federal Act of 19 June 2015 on the Electronic Patient Record (EPRA; SR 816.1) and the DigiSanté programme. The new framework agreement that has been signed replaces the one from 2017 on collaboration in the field of digital health (eHealth agreement), and entered into force on 1 January 2025.

The new agreement continues the work carried out under the Swiss eHealth Strategy 2.0 (2018–24) and takes into account the objectives of the DigiSanté programme to promote digital transformation in the healthcare sector. eHealth Suisse is continuing the national coordination and information activities on the Electronic Patient Record and the work on defining and developing uniform standards at national level, which are necessary for interoperability in the healthcare sector. In addition, eHealth Suisse supports DigiSanté projects in selecting and developing standards and harmonising registers.    

External link: eHealth Suisse framework agreement 2025 (in German) (2.7 MB, 12/17/24)

External link: More information on the legal foundations (in German)

External link: More information on the DigiSanté programme (in German)

Between 2007 and 2017, the coordination centre eHealth Suisse was instrumental in laying the technical foundations for the introduction of the Electronic Patient Record (EPR) by issuing legally non-binding recommendations. With the entry into force of the Federal Act on the Electronic Patient Record (EPRA) in April 2017, eHealth Suisse assumed formal enforcement tasks:

• Selecting, supplementing and updating norms, standards and integration profiles (Art. 12 para. 1 let. a EPRA) on the basis of international standards
• Developing and updating the conceptual and technical foundations of the certification requirements (Art. 12 para. 1 EPRA)
• Preparing, supplementing and updating the requirements for the technical components (Art. 14 EPRA)

• Information work (Art. 15 EPRA)
• Coordination (Art. 16 EPRA)

eHealth Suisse is also supporting the revision of the Federal Act on the Electronic Patient Record, particularly with regard to the technical aspects of the future centralised EPR platform, coordination with project stakeholders, and informing the public and partners. eHealth Suisse also promotes the technical connection of primary systems with the EPR and the adoption of the exchange formats set out in the EPRO-FDHA. When the DigiSanté programme was launched in early 2025, eHealth Suisse assumed responsibility for managing shared service standards.

However, digitalising healthcare goes beyond implementation of the EPR. eHealth Suisse is also involved in standardising norms for the uniform exchange of structured health data and experience-sharing and coordination at national and international level. eHealth Suisse is also the National Release Centre for the SNOMED-CT standard.

External link: Exchange formats (in German)

External link: Integration of the EPR (in German)

External link: SNOMED CT (in German)