Belgian Federal Core, HL7 Belgium IGs and Patient Dossier CareSets
eHealth Platform Federal Core 2.2.0 is the Belgian FHIR baseline. HL7 Belgium community IGs and Patient Dossier CareSets 1.0.0 sit on top. SSIN is the patient identifier. BIHR/EHDS is roadmap, not a live product.
Ala Ben Aicha
Direct answer
eHealth Platform Federal Core 2.2.0 is the Belgian FHIR baseline. HL7 Belgium community IGs and Patient Dossier CareSets 1.0.0 sit on top. Identify patients with SSIN. BIHR/EHDS is roadmap, not a live product.
Federal Core is not every Belgian IG
Belgium publishes FHIR from more than one desk. eHealth Platform federal artefacts are the ones you pin when a tender says “Belgian Core”. HL7 Belgium community guides and the Patient Dossier CareSets IG are different packages. They share a jurisdiction, not a CapabilityStatement.
| Layer | Owner / home | Canonical / package | What it is | What it is not |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| eHealth Federal Core 2.2.0 | eHealth Platform; standards/fhir/core | Official URL https://www.ehealth.fgov.be/standards/fhir/core/ImplementationGuide/hl7.fhir.be.core; package hl7.fhir.be.core#2.2.0 on FHIR R4 |
Federal base for Patient, Practitioner, Organization, Observation, AllergyIntolerance and identifier NamingSystems | Not a complete EHR, not a CareSet, not KMEHR |
| Patient Dossier CareSets 1.0.0 (STU1, 27 Mar 2026) | eHealth Platform; patient-dossier/1.0.0 | Official URL https://www.ehealth.fgov.be/standards/fhir/patient-dossier/ImplementationGuide/hl7.fhir.be.patient-dossier; package hl7.fhir.be.patient-dossier#1.0.0 |
CareSets: patient-specific clinical data sets used across care settings, plus a BeDocument Bundle | Not Federal Core, not a live BIHR product |
| HL7 Belgium community IGs | HL7 Belgium (listed on the eHealth FHIR hub as HL7Be) | Separate guides per use case | Community / affiliate profiles that may be reused | Not automatically “federal” unless eHealth Platform publishes them as such |
Primary sources: eHealth FHIR hub, Federal Core, Patient Dossier 1.0.0. KMEHR remains the older XML national format; BePatient notes several KMEHR elements that are Coverage or future OccupationalData in FHIR — do not expect a 1:1 element dump.
BIHR / EHDS. Treat Belgian Health Data Space work and EHDS localisation as roadmap unless the contract cites a published FHIR IG and version. This page does not treat BIHR as a live FHIR product.
The identifier: SSIN / NISS-INSZ
Country-specific identifier for Belgian Patient is the SSIN (NISS / INSZ). BePatient slices it with fixed system:
https://www.ehealth.fgov.be/standards/fhir/core/NamingSystem/ssin
OID 2.16.840.1.113883.3.6777.5.1. Eleven digits, no punctuation (be-inv-SSIN). Typically used when available; organisations still add a local identifier. Do not publish a real SSIN. Keep the system URL and a dummy value in fixtures.
NIHDI / RIZIV-INAMI identifiers belong on Practitioner and Organization NamingSystems (BeNIHDINamingSystem and related). They are not a substitute for SSIN on Patient.
What to implement first
- If the buyer names Belgian Core / eHealth Platform profiles: Federal Core 2.2.0, BePatient with SSIN, package
hl7.fhir.be.core#2.2.0. - If the buyer names Patient Dossier / CareSets: Patient Dossier 1.0.0 on top of Core, including the BeDocument Bundle where the IG requires a document.
- If the buyer only says “FHIR in Belgium”: name the federal package versus an HL7 Belgium community IG before you estimate.
- For cross-border EHDS payloads, overlay EU Core. EU Core does not replace SSIN. Neighbouring FR Core / INS is a different identifier family.
The HL7 FHIR R4 integration guide is the generic REST primer. Federal Core invariants override generic R4 examples.
What this is not
This article is not an eHealth Platform certificate, not NIHDI approval, not a KMEHR mapping service, and not legal advice. Implementing BePatient in a lab does not enrol you in a federal service. I do not operate Belgian eHealth integration environments. Nothing here is clinical advice.
Related reading
For R4 mapping work against BE Core or CareSets, use HL7 FHIR integration or start a project.