Health Data Cataloging Literacy with HealthDCAT

Welcome to HealthDCAT-AP Literacy, your comprehensive resource for understanding the HealthDCAT-AP metadata standard and its role in the European Health Data Space (EHDS). This platform is designed to help researchers, policymakers, data holders, HDABs and technical experts navigate the key principles and regulations that shape the way health data will be described, shared, and reused across Europe.

What you will find here?
  • HealthDCAT-AP Documentation – A detailed explanation of the HealthDCAT-AP model, its scope, and how it extends the DCAT-AP standard to meet the needs of the health sector.
  • Guidance & Insights – Clear summaries, explanations, and contextual insights to help you understand how HealthDCAT-AP supports metadata management, dataset discovery, and secondary use of health data

  • EHDS Regulation – The full text of the European Health Data Space Regulation, providing the legal framework that mandates interoperability and secure access to health data
  • GenAI assistant – Our Generative AI assistant is available to guide you through the EHDS Regulation, offering insights and answering your questions to enhance your understanding.
Why this matters?
Metadata is the foundation of effective and responsible health data sharing. By structuring dataset descriptions in a standardised and interoperable way, HealthDCAT-AP enables seamless collaboration, promotes research, and ensures compliance with EHDS requirements. This website serves as a knowledge hub to enhance your understanding and application of these standards, supporting the future of federated health data governance.

Whether you are a data provider, policy expert, researcher, or responsible for implementing health data catalogues, we invite you to explore and deepen your HealthDCAT-AP literacy.
Ask questions & share your feedback
We value your input! To make this resource as useful as possible, we've included a feedback form at the bottom of each page where you can:

  • Ask questions about HealthDCAT-AP and the EHDS regulation
  • Request clarifications on specific topics
  • Suggest improvements or additional resources you'd like to see
  • Share your thoughts and experiences in applying these standards

Your feedback helps us improve this platform and ensures that it remains a valuable resource for the health data community.
Additional tools and resources:
The HealthDCAT-AP Specification is published using W3C ReSpec, ensuring a structured, machine-readable, and web-friendly format. This specification details how HealthDCAT-AP extends DCAT-AP to support metadata interoperability within the European Health Data Space (EHDS). It provides clear guidance on metadata elements, relationships, and best practices for dataset cataloguing. The specification follows an open, community-driven development process and is available for feedback and continuous refinement.
The HealthDCAT-AP Editor is a user-friendly tool designed to assist data holders in creating HealthDCAT-AP compliant metadata records. It provides structured fields, dropdowns, and validation features to ensure completeness and compliance with the specification. The editor simplifies metadata generation, making it easier for organisations to describe their datasets in a standardised and interoperable way.
This demo catalogue showcases practical examples of HealthDCAT-AP metadata records, illustrating best practices for dataset descriptions. It serves as a reference for data holders, helping them understand how to structure metadata in alignment with EHDS requirements. The examples cover different dataset types, ensuring adaptability to various health data contexts.
The HealthDCAT-AP Validator ensures that metadata records conform to the HealthDCAT-AP specification by applying SHACL (Shapes Constraint Language) rules. This tool detects missing or incorrect metadata elements, guiding users in correcting and refining their dataset descriptions. It helps maintain metadata quality, consistency, and interoperability across catalogues.
The Data Profiling Toolkit automates the generation of data dictionaries for datasets described in HealthDCAT-AP. It analyses dataset structures, extracts key variables, and creates structured documentation that enhances data usability and interoperability. This tool is particularly useful for ensuring compliance with EHDS metadata requirements and supporting standardised dataset descriptions.
The HealthDCAT-AP API enables seamless integration of HealthDCAT-AP metadata into catalogues, repositories, and third-party applications. It provides RESTful endpoints for creating, validating, and retrieving metadata records, facilitating interoperability between health dataset catalogues. This API ensures smooth metadata exchange, enhancing the discoverability and accessibility of health data within the EHDS framework.
The EHDS Dataset Categorisation Assistant is designed to assist data holders in accurately classifying their datasets in accordance with Article 51 of the European Health Data Space (EHDS) regulation.