New TEHDAS2 Guideline Helps Data Holders Describe Health Datasets for Reuse Across Europe
TEHDAS2 has released a new guideline to support health data holders in fulfilling their obligations under the European Health Data Space (EHDS) regulation. The deliverable, “Guideline on data description”, offers hands-on advice for identifying which datasets must be described and provides detailed instructions on how to use the HealthDCAT-AP metadata model to ensure those datasets are findable, interoperable, and compliant.
The EHDS regulation requires that electronic health data eligible for secondary use be described and included in national and EU-level metadata catalogues. This new guideline walks health data holders through that process—from determining whether their datasets fall within the 17 legal categories outlined in Article 51 of the regulation, to preparing accurate and standardised metadata records.
“One of our goals was to help data holders go from legal obligation to practical action. We show how to assess if your data are in scope, and how to describe your data clearly using HealthDCAT-AP,” said Nienke Schutte (Sciensano, Belgium), lead author of the guideline.
The guideline includes:
- A plain-language breakdown of all Article 51 data categories, complete with real-life examples;
- Practical explanations of key metadata properties (e.g. dataset title, variables, access conditions);
- Guidance on how to apply the FAIR principles and ensure semantic interoperability across borders.
“We tried to make this as accessible and useful as possible—not just a legal checklist, but a tool for enabling high-quality data discovery and reuse under the EHDS,” added Danielle Welter (Luxembourg National Data Service), co-author of the deliverable.
The guideline complements the Technical specification on the national metadata catalogue and provides the foundation for future implementing acts that will shape Europe’s shared infrastructure for health data reuse.
The full guideline is available on the TEHDAS2 website.
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