The future of healthcare in Belgium is being built on a foundation of seamless and secure data exchange, with the HL7 FHIR standard as a key enabler.
Did you know that Belgium scored a full 100% in the EU’s 2025 Digital Decade eHealth Indicator Study, which assessed how EU Member States enable citizens to access their electronic health records online?
The Belgian eHealth Action Plan 2026-2029 sets out a framework for a sustainable ecosystem in prevention, well-being, and healthcare. Its objective is to provide an efficiently integrated eHealth architecture that guarantees continuity of care for every citizen. To ensure data availability and interoperability across different health systems, the plan focuses on international standards, such as SNOMED CT for terminology (content coding) and HL7 FHIR for the technical exchange of data.
Alongside the eHealth Action Plan, which is concerned with the primary use of health data, the Health Data Agency (HDA) oversees secure access to medical data for research and policy purposes (secondary data use). Here, too, the FHIR standard plays a key role.
Through this approach, Belgium is actively preparing for the European Health Data Space (EHDS), which aims to facilitate cross-border exchange of patient data.
In order to adapt the international FHIR standard for use in Belgium, the eHealth platform collaborates closely with HL7 Belgium. Together, they develop Belgian profiles for FHIR resources and Implementation Guides (IGs) to enable the standardized exchange of vital health data.
The adoption and practical application of the FHIR standard are being realised through multiple projects advancing the digital transformation of the Belgian healthcare landscape.
As a healthcare integration specialist, Amaron actively participates in all these initiatives.
