FAQ

The onboarding process consists of multiple steps to add your metadata to the National Health Data Catalog that depend on the current infrastructure at your institute. At its core, the data provider/holder needs to map their metadata to the HRI metadata standard and expose the metadata to the National Health Data Catalogue.

You can learn all about the process here and direct further question servicedesk@health-ri.nl with “Onboarding” in the subject.  

The National Health Data Catalogue aims to make Dutch life science and healthcare data findable, accessible, reusable, and interoperable (FAIR) while being compliant the larger EU vision for sharing of data as part of European Health Data Space (EHDS).  

 Yes. Ideally, the implementation of the onboarding process connects to a larger infrastructure of your institution. This way the adding of multiple datasets or whole catalogues/repositories simultaneously to optimize the time needed to onboard. If you are unsure whether your institute or organization is already implementing an onboarding solution please contact servicedesk@health-ri.nl with “Onboarding” in the subject.  

Generally, there are two “expert” steps needed for the onboarding: FDP implementation and metadata mapping. The FDP implementation can be done by a person with basic IT knowledge such as an IT department and the metadata mapping by a person with basic knowledge of metadata such as a Data steward.  

If this expertise is not available, Health-RI can help with some support, depending on the situation. We encourage institutes to combine the onboarding with other departments or organisations. In some cases, it might also be possible to use an existing solution in the same regional node. If you would like to discuss this option, please contact servicedesk@health-ri.nl with “Onboarding” in the subject. 

From the onboarding perspective data holder/provider is an individual or institution authorized to share (meta)data with the National Health Data Catalogue and enable secondary use of data.  

The National Health Data Catalogue is filled with metadata. Your data stays withing your own infrastructure. You can share the metadata about your EHR with the Catalogue by following the onboarding process and mapping your metadata to the Health-RI metadata standard and exposing them to the Catalogue.  

Currently, the BBMRI-NL catalogue does not automatically connect to the National Health Data Catalogue. Health-RI is now working on a long-term solution for the BBMRI-NL and National Health Data Catalogue connection within the Biobanks & Collection platform.  

The National Health Data Catalogue can be searched using keyword or filters based on the current available metadata. Health-RI is currently developing both the Catalogue searchability and the metadata models aiming to step-wise increase the searchability. You can follow the latest developments here.  

The National Health Data Catalogue can connect to other repositories with compatible or mapped metadata standards.  At the moment this is being developed.

You can map your metadata to Health-RI metadata standard. For more information on the mapping, see here. We also provide some mapping example here. For automating of export from you database, you can use scripts like SeMPyRO or img2catalog.  If you need support with metadata mapping please contact servicedesk@health-ri.nl with Onboarding  in the subject or join our Walk-in hour. 

The definition of the “dcat:Dataset” class is: a meaningful collection of data, published or curated by a single organisation or individual, and available for access or download in one or more representations.  

Usually, this means a study or a cohort but can in practice give rise to confusion due to complexitiy of variables used. Together with data holders/providers the Health-RI Data Team is trying to provide more examples of use as well as model complex data for the upcoming modelling updates.  
If you would like to get involved or would like to get support, please contact servicedesk@health-ri.nl with “Onboarding” in the subject. 

The current Health-RI metadata model consists of the Core metadata variables (based on DCAT). This can be somewhat limiting in expressing complex data.
Health-RI is currently working on an updated metadata model which will also include Health Data related variables. You can find information and give feedback on the model here. We are also working on creating a process of creating a domain specific models. You can find the draft of the process here.  

Health-RI Data Team together with data holders/providers  is trying to provide more examples of use as well as model complex data for the incoming modelling updates. If you would like to get involved or would like to get support please contact servicedesk@health-ri.nl with “Onboarding”  in the subject. 

The Health-RI metadata standard contains a metadata tag indicating the last update of the metadata.  

The set-up of an FDP itself takes several hours, and the reference implementation is open source. There might be some costs associated with the server space. However, if the set up includes an automated connection between the FDP and the (meta)data source, this will require some more time. Generally, we advise planning the onboarding projects before beginning implementation. You can find some pointers here.  

No, at the moment Health-RI does not provide a hosting service for organization to host their FDP. We recommend the FDP to be hosted close to the source of the metadata. If you cannot implement a FDP at your institute, you might be able to use an existing solution in your regional node. If you would like to discuss this option, please contact servicedesk@health-ri.nl with “Onboarding”  in the subject. 

Health-RI is not a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) Registration agency and therefore does not provide DOIs. However, existing DOIs can be part of the metadata in the Catalogue. In the future, Health-RI aims to provide persistent identifiers to objects in the Catalogue. 

The National Health Data Catalogue is in principle harvestable by other catalogues and able to harvest catalogues as well. However, at the moment we are not directly connected to other (international) repositories.  

The harvester is harvesting metadata from connected Fair Data Points (FDPs) at least once every 24 hours.  

The harvester is using the CKAN platform and harvester with some customized additions to accommodate FDPs.