Training SPHN Metadata Catalog and SPARQL queries

The Swiss Personalized Health Network (SPHN) Metadata Catalog is a central resource for discovering and understanding health datasets available in SPHN. It is supported by a SPARQL endpoint to retrieve relevant information.

This full-day training is designed to give participants both the theoretical background and the practical skills to query the SPHN Metadata Catalog using SPARQL. Starting from the basics, participants will progressively learn how to construct, refine, and execute SPARQL queries to extract relevant metadata from the SPHN Metadata Catalog.

A particular focus of the training is placed on two key datasets available through the SPHN Metadata Catalog: the SPHN Federated Clinical Routine Dataset, which brings together structured clinical data collected as part of routine hospital care across Swiss university hospitals, and the National Data Stream datasets, which are standardized data flows defined at a national level to support research.

The morning session will introduce SPHN data assets, explain the structure and purpose of the SPHN Metadata Catalog, and cover the fundamentals of querying the catalog with SPARQL, including more advanced queries using standard terminologies such as SNOMED CT. The afternoon session will focus on hands-on practice, giving participants the opportunity to explore the SPHN Metadata Catalog and write queries against the SPARQL endpoint to answer concrete research questions.

• Understand the structure of the SPHN Metadata Catalog
• Explore SPHN Metadata Catalog datasets and terminologies through SPARQL queries
• Adapt SPARQL queries to retrieve metadata and support data discovery

Researchers, data scientists or analysts who would like to discover available datasets in SPHN using structured metadata through SPARQL queries.

This will be a technical training. Knowledge of (or interest in learning) SPARQL is recommended.

24th June 2026, 10:00 - 16:00

Haus der Akademien, Laupenstrasse 7, CH-3001 Bern

• 10:00 – 10:10 Welcome
• 10:10 – 10:20 Short introduction (SPHN Data Assets & SPHN Metadata Catalog)
• 10:20 – 11:00 Deep dive into the SPHN Metadata Catalog
• 11:00 – 11:30 SPARQL querying of the SPHN Metadata Catalog
• 11:30 – 12:00 SPARQL querying of terminologies codes (e.g., SNOMED CT)
• 12:00 – 13:00 Lunch
• 13:00 – 16:00 Hands-on: Querying the SPHN Metadata Catalog and its terminologies through the SPARQL endpoint

The training fees are 100 CHF.

Participants are registered on a first come, first serve basis.

You will be informed by email of your registration confirmation. Upon reception of the confirmation email, participants will be asked to confirm attendance by paying the fees.

Applications close on 17.06.2026 or as soon as the maximum capacity of 25 participants has been reached.

The course will be delivered in English. Each participants should bring a laptop.

Remote attendance is not possible.
Slides will be made available after the training.

If you need a certificate of attendance, please indicate it during your registration.

Trainers: Deepak Unni, Vasundra Touré and Sabine Österle

Lunch and coffee break are included.

For more information, please contact fair-data-team@sib.swiss