The xShare project and Fundació TIC Salut i Social have reached a new milestone in European digital health cooperation by signing a memorandum of understanding that sets out a joint plan to test and refine the Gold xShare Industry Label within the Catalan health system. The agreement outlines a year-long pilot that will explore how real healthcare organisations can adopt and validate the highest level of the xShare label, which is designed to help Europe move toward more secure and interoperable exchange of health data.
Under the agreement, both sides will work together to apply the Gold xShare Industry Label evaluation framework in real settings. The goal is to see how well it works on the ground, identify what needs improvement and gather evidence that can guide future EU-wide adoption. The pilot will focus on Personal Health Record applications used in Catalonia. These applications will go through a full assessment that covers documentation review, technical testing, and the final certification step.
A large part of the work will revolve around interoperability. FTSS will run tests using the Gazelle tool, check how mature each application’s IPS implementation is, and validate the xShare Yellow Button functionality through real-world demonstrations. The tests will look at semantics and syntax to make sure the structured data meets xShare and HL7 FHIR IPS expectations.
xShare will give FTSS access to all the tools and documentation needed for the assessment and will join discussions on results and methodological improvements. FTSS will lead the evaluation itself, produce the final assessment report and work with xShare on recommendations that can shape the future of the Gold xShare Industry Label.
Both organisations see this collaboration as an important step toward helping regional and national systems across Europe prepare for the European Health Data Space. If the Catalonia pilot proves successful, it could serve as a model for other regions looking to validate digital health applications and promote trustworthy, interoperable data exchange at scale.
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