Joining the openEHR Affiliate Programme is one of the best ways to get involved and help drive global adoption of open, shareable electronic health records (EHRs).
Managed by openEHR International, the Affiliate Programme brings together organisations and individuals who share our vision for improving healthcare quality and patient outcomes. Affiliates champion openEHR standards within their regions, sectors, or specialties – from national health systems to life sciences.
Current Affiliates:
Brasil, Finland, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, Oman, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, USA and Life Sciences
In progress: Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Italy
Here are the latest updates from our affiliates around the world:
openEHR Luxembourg (openEHR.lu) is an affiliate in progress, led by Vanessa Pereira, Michaël Schnell, and Maximilian Fünfgeld. The group is currently forming its structure and legal entity, with official documentation to follow once registration is complete. For now, contact can be made via vanessa.pereira@protonmail.com, with a dedicated address at contact@openehr.lu planned once the domain and website are active.
The affiliate’s early efforts focus on promoting openEHR technologies in Luxembourg, compiling a list of locally developed applications and data models, and supporting knowledge-sharing across the community. Key activities include creating and translating archetypes into French, German, Luxembourgish, and Portuguese, as well as exchanging insights on both local and international events.
In the coming year, priorities include establishing the affiliate group, launching a website, and building local awareness of openEHR. The team welcomes visibility and support from the openEHR community, particularly through an official announcement and a dedicated space on Discourse.
openEHR Netherlands, operating under the Stichting openEHR Nederland, is an established affiliate led by Wouter Zanen and Sebastian Iancu. The group continues to advance openEHR adoption across the Dutch health IT ecosystem, particularly by promoting its use as a foundation for semantic modelling in the Netherlands. Active collaborations are underway with Nictiz, the national health IT institute, alongside efforts to grow the community of supporters.
The affiliate hosts yearly working group meetings under the banner onEHR, with the last session held on 9 September, bringing together openEHR supporters and other interested stakeholders.
In the year ahead, priorities include deepening cooperation with Nictiz, expanding the supporter network, establishing archetype and template governance, and furthering openEHR–FHIR alignment. The group also seeks broader dialogue within the openEHR community regarding its role in the evolving European Health Data Space (EHDS).
More information is available at www.openehr.nl.
Núcleo openEHR Portugal, operating under E-Mais – Movimento Associação dos Sistemas de Informação em Saúde, is an established affiliate led by Nuno Abreu. The group’s recent work has focused on education and awareness, including an openEHR course completed last year and a presentation to IT directors from several Portuguese healthcare units. A partnership with HL7 Brazil is in progress to strengthen training initiatives, and efforts are underway to resume archetype translations.
In the coming year, the affiliate aims to increase visibility within Portugal’s health informatics community and continue advancing local adoption of openEHR standards.
For more information, visit e-mais.pt/openehr or contact nunovieiraabreu@gmail.com.
openEHR Spain, led by Adolfo Muñoz Carrero under the Sociedad Española de Informática de la Salud (SEIS), is an affiliate in progress dedicated to promoting health informatics standards and interoperability across Spain. SEIS, the national society of health informatics professionals, supports a Technical Committee on Interoperability with representatives from all autonomous communities and serves as the Technical Secretariat of CTN-UNE 139, the Spanish mirror committee of CEN TC251 and ISO TC215.
Looking ahead, the main focus for the next 12 months is to establish the Spanish Node of openEHR, further embedding open standards in Spain’s digital health landscape. More information can be found at seis.es.
openEHR Sverige, operating as an established work group within the Svensk Förening för Medicinsk Informatik (SFMI), continues to maintain strong engagement within Sweden’s health informatics community.
The group is led by SFMI Board representative Mikael Nyström and openEHR Sweden Product Owner Joana Vicente, who can be reached via mikael.nystrom@sfmi.se or contact@openehr.se. Regular working group and management meetings are held, alongside ongoing collaboration with national stakeholders.
Over the next year, the affiliate plans to continue its steady activities, guided by members’ interests. More information can be found at openehr.se.
openEHR Switzerland, operating under the association openEHR.ch, is an established affiliate actively strengthening the Swiss openEHR community. Led by Arnold Gloor and Urs Wittwer, the group connects members and supporters, organises symposia, supports modelling groups, and collaborates with other standards bodies and government partners.
Over the next year, priorities include expanding membership, integrating openEHR into medical informatics education, enhancing modelling activities, and deepening partnerships with related organisations. The affiliate seeks fewer restrictions and broader support from openEHR International.
In parallel, CISTEC AG, represented by Emmanuel Eschmann, continues to advance openEHR adoption in Switzerland, focusing on implementing openEHR within productive EHR environments and raising international CKM archetypes from v0 to v1.
More information is available at openehr.ch.
openEHR UK, operating under the openEHR UK Foundation CIC, is an established affiliate led by Andy Meiner, Phil Bottomley, and Paul Miller. The affiliate has launched several initiatives to strengthen the UK’s engagement with the global openEHR community, including the openEHR Academy, which kicked off in June in collaboration with System Integration Squared Ltd and Rosaldo.Oy.
Over the next year, the focus will be on generating revenues to support expanded marketing and promotional activities, including a stronger presence at industry events and conferences. The affiliate welcomes community support in promoting openEHR Academy content and updates across LinkedIn.
For further information, contact andy@si-squared.co, phil@avenue3.com, or paul.miller@nhs.scot.
openEHR US and openEHR Life Sciences are two new affiliates currently being incubated under US tax law, following an MOU executed on 3 April 2025 between Rachel Dunscombe and Dr John Powderly of BioCytics. The initiative is led by Dr John Powderly (JP MD) and Dr Jennifer Montague, Senior Director of Scientific Business Development, Investor & Public Relations, who is helping coordinate their formation. Together, they have engaged 17 organisations and individuals interested in joining these new affiliates.
Over the past 2.5 years, Dr Powderly has built momentum across the US and global biotech and biopharma sectors through direct outreach and collaboration. The affiliates are supported by a growing team, including CBOI-BioCytics CIO Gary Griffin, who is partnering with MedBlocks to develop a DevOps environment for an openEHR specification base layer – with future EDC and ERP systems integrating FHIR ingestion and OMOP mapping.
CBOI-BioCytics has also recruited an Informatics Advisory Board of openEHR community leaders to support these efforts. Looking ahead, the focus is on embedding openEHR within clinical trial infrastructures and exploring alignment across LOINC, SNOMED, HL7, and openEHR to enable unified interoperability.
More information is available by contacting jpowderly@carolinabiooncology.org or jmontague@biocytics.com.
More information?
Learn how the openEHR Affiliate Programme supports the global adoption of open, shareable electronic health records to improve patient outcomes. Discover who can join, what affiliates do, and how they promote openEHR’s mission within their regions. Plus governance, setup steps, and how collaboration helps build stronger, interoperable digital health systems worldwide.
Ready to get started?
If you’re ready to start your own affiliate, just download the Affiliate Agreement, complete the highlighted sections, and return to comms@openehr.org