Since 1 January 2024, a Dutch general practitioner has to send a prescription to the pharmacy electronically. That is the only data exchange currently mandatory under the Wegiz, and it sets the pattern for everything that follows.
The Wegiz is the Dutch act on electronic data exchange in healthcare, Wet elektronische gegevensuitwisseling in de zorg. It has applied since 1 July 2023 and works as a framework law: the act designates nothing by itself. A general administrative order, an AMvB, does that, and each order points to quality standards, NEN standards, and information standards. Those documents hold the requirements that end up in your code.
Below you'll read which exchanges come first, which standards apply, what zibs and HL7 FHIR do to your data model, and how to prepare an existing system.
What the Wegiz actually requires
The Wegiz obliges Dutch care providers to carry out designated data exchanges electronically. The act covers the method of exchange. Article 1.7 states in one sentence that it contains no obligation to exchange data at all. Whether a clinician shares information follows from the quality standards agreed in the sector. The act decides how that happens technically.
The obligation comes in two tracks, called spoor 1 and spoor 2:
- Track 1. From a set date the designated exchange has to be electronic. No requirements on language or technology come with it.
- Track 2. The exchange has to be electronic and follow designated standards. Suppliers demonstrate that their software meets those standards, and care providers may then only use that software.
Track 2 is the one that matters to a vendor. Message formats, field definitions, and interfaces turn from a design choice into a legal requirement.
The obligation sits with the Dutch care provider, so any vendor selling an electronic health record, pharmacy system, or planning application into the Dutch market inherits these build requirements. For suppliers in healthcare, the act is rarely the useful starting point. The chain of documents runs the same way every time: the AMvB designates the exchange and refers to a quality standard and a NEN standard, the NEN standard refers to an information standard, and that standard specifies the data down to field level.
The act also constrains the standards themselves. Article 1.4 says a standard can only be designated if it sets requirements for the interfaces used, following an API strategy based on open and, where possible, international standards. A closed integration between two known parties does not qualify.
Which data exchanges come first
The Wegiz multi year agenda lists five data exchanges that have to go electronic first:
- Medication transfer. The medication process between prescriber, pharmacy, institution, and patient.
- Basic healthcare dataset, the Basisgegevensset Zorg or BgZ. The patient summary exchanged between medical specialist institutions.
- Image availability. Radiology images and the reports that belong to them.
- eOverdracht. The nursing handover between long term care and hospitals, and between long term care organizations.
- Acute care. Data shared between out of hours GP services, ambulances, dispatch centers, and emergency departments.
So far only one exchange has been designated in law: a prescription sent by a general practitioner to a dispenser, in force since 1 January 2024. Since 1 July 2024 the medication agreement also has to be available to the patient's personal health environment, following the MedMij data service Verzamelen Huisartsgegevens 2.0 and its information standard.
The remaining orders are on hold. In a progress letter of 20 January 2026 the Dutch health minister wrote that they cannot legally be put through the process. The Wegiz assumes assessment by an independent certification body, while the European Health Data Space regulation works with self assessment by the supplier. That change has to be written into the Wegiz first, and the bill is expected to reach parliament during 2027.
A delay in the orders is not a delay in the build. The substance is largely settled and implementation continues. The NEN standards for the BgZ, image availability, and the nursing handover are finished, and the national medication transfer program runs a kickstart in the Friesland and Rijnmond regions, where standardized exchange is scheduled from mid 2026. Suppliers serving pharmacies, general practices, and hospitals have started implementing it.
The standards your software has to meet
Each prioritized exchange has its own NEN standard. The position as of September 2026:
- NEN 7503:2022 for prescribing and dispensing medication.
- NEN 7540:2024 for the basic healthcare dataset.
- NEN 7541:2026 for image availability.
- NEN 7542:2026 for medication data.
- NEN 7545:2026 for the nursing handover.
A second series covers the generic functions, the parts that return in every exchange: identification, authentication, localization, consent, authorization, and addressing. NEN 7519 for localization was published in 2026. NEN 7517 for consent, NEN 7518 for identification and authentication, and NEN 7520 for authorization are still in development.
Those generic functions deserve attention in your architecture. They belong to national facilities your system connects to. Wiring consent, authorization, and localization deep into your own application creates work that has to be pulled apart later. All of these standards can be read free of charge, so have your architect go through them before you estimate.
What zibs and HL7 FHIR mean for your data model
A zorginformatiebouwsteen, usually shortened to zib, is a fixed definition of a clinical concept: which fields it contains, what type they are, and which code list the values come from. Information standards are assembled from zibs and then expressed as HL7 FHIR profiles, the technical form the data travels in.
Medicatieproces 9, the Dutch medication process standard, shows how concrete this gets. Version 2.0.0 is specified in HL7 FHIR R4 and builds on the 2020 publication of the zibs, with zibs such as MedicationAgreement, DispenseRequest, AdministrationAgreement, MedicationDispense, and MedicationUse. The nursing handover uses 57 zibs, of which thirteen sit in the minimal set.
Three questions follow for your data model.
Coverage. Your model needs every field the zib prescribes. When half of them live in a free text field, that is the most common reason an existing system fails qualification.
Coding. Zibs prescribe coded values, often from SNOMED CT. An in house picklist of five options rarely maps one to one onto such a list, and that mapping table is work teams routinely underestimate.
Where you translate. You can adopt the zib structure in your core, or keep your current model and translate in the integration layer. The second route goes live faster. The first pays off once a second and third exchange arrive, because you stop maintaining a translation per standard. We often build that layer as part of custom software and document it like any other API.
What a qualified exchange asks of your integrations
Before a system takes part in an exchange, it has to show that it applies the information standard correctly. Nictiz, the Dutch competence center for health IT standards, runs that qualification with a simulator: your application connects, works through the qualification script, and on a clean result receives a statement for that health information system. A new version of the standard means a new qualification round.
That has four consequences for the way you build.
- Your interface becomes a product with its own lifecycle. Version numbers, release notes, and a period where two versions run side by side belong to it.
- Test data and scenarios are part of the scope. Qualification exercises the exceptions, and you need somewhere to reproduce them.
- Technical documentation becomes a deliverable. Under the coming self assessment regime the supplier demonstrates conformity with documentation, and NEN published the assessment scheme NCS 7560 for that in 2026.
- Switching has to stay possible. Article 1.5 of the Wegiz allows requirements that let a care provider move to a comparable system, including data portability. Plan a complete, documented export.
Preparing an existing system step by step
An electronic health record, pharmacy system, or planning application does not need a rebuild. This order works best in our projects.
- Work out which exchanges touch you. That depends on the care setting your users work in. A long term care supplier faces eOverdracht and medication data; a hospital supplier adds the BgZ and image availability.
- Put your data model next to the zibs. Produce a gap list per field, code lists included. This step takes the most time and sets the schedule.
- Decide where translation happens. Integration layer for speed, core model for durability across several standards.
- Build the interface on the FHIR profiles of the standard. Error handling, logging of failed messages, and a retry queue belong there, as with any system integration.
- Qualify early and repeat. Plan qualification into the first release rather than the final sprint.
- Clear out what blocks you. Aging data layers and undocumented interfaces make every next standard more expensive. Targeted modernization pays for itself by the second exchange.
Isatis has built software for more than 30 years in settings with fixed data definitions and strict traceability, from maintenance software for aviation to a subsidy administration platform and product data carried across the supply chain with RFID. With 30+ engineers in Nijmegen and Sarajevo and more than 100 projects behind us, we know what mandatory fields and an external test do to a schedule. Book a call with our team and we'll look at which part of your system comes first.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Wegiz?
The Wegiz is the Dutch act on electronic data exchange in healthcare, in force since 1 July 2023. It is a framework law that designates data exchanges by administrative order, which then have to take place electronically. A track 2 designation adds requirements on language and technology, set out in NEN standards.
Which data exchanges are mandatory today?
Only a prescription sent by a general practitioner to a dispenser, since 1 January 2024. Since 1 July 2024 the medication agreement also has to be available to the patient's personal health environment. Orders for the other four exchanges are still in preparation.
Does my software need certification for the Wegiz?
The Wegiz still assumes a certificate issued by an independent body under a track 2 designation. That route is being replaced by self assessment by the supplier, in line with the European Health Data Space. The bill arranging this went through public consultation in mid 2026. For planning purposes, budget for technical documentation and demonstrable tests.
What does the Wegiz mean for a system without FHIR?
A system without FHIR can take part through an integration layer that maps your internal model onto the FHIR profiles of the information standard. The heaviest work sits in the data: missing fields, values that were never coded, and text fields holding several concepts at once.
