CH EPL (R5)
1.0.1 - trial-use Switzerland flag

CH EPL (R5), published by Federal Office of Public Health FOPH. This guide is not an authorized publication; it is the continuous build for version 1.0.1 built by the FHIR (HL7® FHIR® Standard) CI Build. This version is based on the current content of https://github.com/bag-epl/bag-epl-fhir/ and changes regularly. See the Directory of published versions

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Official URL: http://fhir.ch/ig/ch-epl/ImplementationGuide/ch.fhir.ig.ch-epl Version: 1.0.1
Active as of 2026-03-06 Computable Name: CH_EPL

Copyright/Legal: CC0-1.0

Introduction

The CH ePL is a major digital transformation project initiated by the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) in Switzerland to modernise how key healthcare benefit lists (including the specialities list and MiGeL) and their processes are managed, published, and exchanged electronically.

FHIR ressources for IDMP

This implementation guide uses the following FHIR resource to represent the context of the international ISO IDMP (Identification of Medicinal Products) standard:

This implementation guide is dependent on

which describe the international context, especially related to IDMP.

Documentation

This implementation guide describes the exchange formats, structures, datafields and handlings of the "Specialities List".

The following documents have been defined (and described in more detail on the respective subsections):

  1. FOPH ePL: Description and summary of the scope ePL project of FOPH (Federal Office of Public Health)
  2. HL7 FHIR Standard: Short description and explanation of the FHIR standard.
  3. ISO IDMP Standard (ISO 11615): Introduction into the IDMP standard of ISO.
  4. IDMP and FHIR: Explanation on how IDMP is build in FHIR.

The IDMP implentations

  1. Swiss IDMP Implementation: Overview of the IDMP implementation in Switzerland
  2. EMA IDMP Implementation: Introduction of the IDMP implemantation by the European Medicines Agency for the European Union.
  3. Swissmedic IDMP Implementation: Introduction of the IDMP implementation by Swissmedic for Switzerland
  4. FOPH Speciality List: Introduction on the IDMP implemantation and its FHIR extensions developed for FOPH.

Changelog with significant changes, open and closed issues.

Download: You can download this implementation guide in the npm format from here.

Collaboration

This guide is the product of collaborative work undertaken with participants from:

IP Statements

This document is licensed under Creative Commons "No Rights Reserved" (CC0).

HL7®, HEALTH LEVEL SEVEN®, FHIR® and the FHIR ® are trademarks owned by Health Level Seven International, registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

This publication includes IP covered under the following statements.

Cross Version Analysis

This IG can only be used with FHIR R5 systems.

Dependency Table

Package hl7.fhir.uv.extensions.r5#5.2.0

This IG defines the global extensions - the ones defined for everyone. These extensions are always in scope wherever FHIR is being used (built Mon, Feb 10, 2025 21:45+1100+11:00)

Package hl7.fhir.uv.tools.r5#1.1.2

This IG defines the extensions that the tools use internally. Some of these extensions are content that are being evaluated for elevation into the main spec, and others are tooling concerns (built Tue, Mar 24, 2026 11:13+1100+11:00)

CH-ePL currently has no dependency on ch-core, as ch-core is based on FHIR R4, whereas CH-ePL is based on R5. The use of R5 was necessary because IDMP support is only available from R5 onwards.

Looking ahead (expected around 2028), the dependencies of CH-ePL are likely to be updated. By that time, a Swiss IDMP base FHIR Implementation Guide is expected to be published, and CH-ePL will likely depend on this Swiss IDMP base FHIR IG. In turn, this base IG may build upon ch-core. Presumably, all of these artefacts will be aligned with the newer R6 version.

Globals Table

There are no Global profiles defined