PLUGIN is an open, federated data platform for Dutch healthcare — enabling hospitals, researchers, and data engineers to collaborate on real-world health data while keeping data where it belongs: at the source.
PLUGIN (Platform voor Uitwisseling en Hergebruik van Klinische Data Nederland) is a national initiative building the technical and semantic infrastructure for federated, composable health data spaces in the Netherlands. We work at the intersection of clinical informatics, data engineering, and open standards.
Our platform enables:
- 🔗 Federated analytics — run analyses across hospital data without centralising patient data
- 🏗️ Composable data stations — standardised, interoperable hospital data nodes
- 📐 Semantic interoperability — harmonising Dutch zib/FHIR, OMOP CDM, and openEHR standards
- 📦 Open tooling — reusable components for ETL, data curation, and implementation guidance
| Repository | Description |
|---|---|
| website | homebase of all things PLUGIN |
| architectuur | Platform architecture described in arc42 template and C4 software engineering model |
| implementation-guide | FHIR Implementation Guide for PLUGIN |
| pluginlake | Federated data lake — the core platform |
| linkml-rosetta | Integration of information models, schemas and mappings in LinkML |
| link-viewer | Interactive ERD viewer for LinkML schemas |
| data-station-specification | Specification of composable data stations |
| federated-composable-datastack | Working paper (in progress) |
We build with and around:
- HL7 FHIR R4 — including Dutch Nictiz zib2020 profiles
- OMOP Common Data Model — with OMOCL and Eos for openEHR-to-OMOP ETL
- LinkML — for schema-first data modelling and semantic mapping
- vantage6 — for privacy-preserving federated learning
- openEHR — clinical information models
- Apache Parquet / DuckDB / dbt — for the composable data stack
- 📖 PLUGIN Handbook — comprehensive documentation (Dutch & English)
- 🏛️ C4 Software Architecture — interactive architecture diagrams
- 📄 Data Interoperability in Context — peer-reviewd journal paper on the importance of open-source implementations when choosing standards
We welcome contributions from clinicians, data engineers, health informaticians, and open-source enthusiasts. Check out individual repository CONTRIBUTING.md files, or browse our implementation guide discussions to get started.
Find us on GitHub at github.com/plugin-healthcare or explore our public repositories to learn more about how we are building the next generation of Dutch health data infrastructure.
Building open, federated health data infrastructure for the Netherlands — together.
