From Proof of Concept to Reusable Blueprint: Advancing Health Data Interoperability with openEHR and FHIR

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OpenEHR Switzerland and HL7 Switzerland established a joint working group, leveraging the end-to-end proof of concept developed at the 2026 Swiss GovTech Hackathon concerning vaccinations. The goal is to create an implementation guide that documents the approach for openEHR modeling, bidirectional transformation between HL7 FHIR documents and openEHR COMPOSITIONs (using FHIRconnect and openFHIR), and a comprehensive architecture. The necessity for this combination stems from complementary requirements: while CH VACD, built on HL7 FHIR, mandates the Swiss exchange format for vaccination data, maintaining its clinical usability over decades requires more than just point-in-time exchange. OpenEHR provides a vendor-neutral persistence layer that preserves the clinical meaning and queryability of structured data through international community curation. By validating the complete path from FHIR-based exchange to longitudinal openEHR persistence and back, the working group aims to create a reusable blueprint. This guide is intended not only for vaccination but also to support broader initiatives like the Swiss Health Data Space (SwissHDS), ensuring robust interoperability and long-term data integrity across various clinical domains.