Brussels, 19 May 2025 — The European Health Data Space (EHDS) regulation was published two months ago. The next EHDS milestone will be March 2027 when the Commission will publish key implementing acts related to the European Electronic Health Record Exchange Format, which will define common specifications for the exchange of health data in and between the Member States. The Commission is advancing work on these specifications in the Xt-EHR project, which in turn is collaborating with key Standards Development Organisations including HL7 Europe: as an open, international standard, the HL7 FHIR exchange standard will play a significant role in the EHDS.

The HL7 International Working Group Meeting and Connectathon last week in Madrid featured a dedicated track focused on the EHDS, bringing together experts and implementers from across Europe to validate, improve, and align the HL7 FHIR Implementation Guides (IGs) that support the evolving EHDS ecosystem. HL7 Europe Technical Lead Giorgio Cangioli led a discussion on the FHIR Implementation Guides (IGs) that will support the EHDS’ priority categories of health data, including

• The EU Base and Core Profiles FHIR IG
• The EU Laboratory Report FHIR IG
• The EU Hospital Discharge Report FHIR IG
• The EU Medication Prescription & Dispense FHIR IG
• The EU Patient Summary
• The EU Imaging Study Report

Over two days, participants reviewed these IGs, addressed outstanding questions, tested and validated them against real-world examples, and advanced the specifications further by making technical and structural improvements. Specific progress was made on the topics of medication (towards harmonising clinical representation of medication with the European regulatory push on electronic Product Information / ePI) and imaging (further alignment between DICOM and HL7 FHIR specifications).

The progress made in Madrid will be channelled into upcoming HL7 Europe balloting initiatives, and new examples will be added to the official IG websites. The HL7 Europe team looks forward to collaborating with the community at the IHE-Europe’s EHDS Plugathon next month in Vienna, focusing on testing, harmonisation, and broader adoption.