Project Description
Enabling a modern healthcare data mesh
Zuyderland Medical Center is one of the most innovative hospital groups in the Netherlands. As the amount of clinical and operational data continues to grow, the hospital set the strategic goal of building an integrated data platform that supports interoperability and enables scalable innovation. To achieve this, Zuyderland decided to move from a traditional centralized data team to a domain-driven data mesh, powered by Microsoft Fabric and the OneLake architecture. With this approach, the hospital aims to decentralize data & AI-ownership, standardize healthcare data models, and accelerate the adoption of analytics across all domains, without imposing the burden of infrastructure management on individual teams.
To support both operational and clinical innovation, Conclusion Intelligence supports Zuyderland’s data leadership in focusing on the following areas:
Implement a scalable healthcare data mesh using Microsoft Fabric as the core platform, leveraging OneLake as a unified storage foundation and integrating existing and new systems such as OpenEHR solutions and FHIR-based services.
Enable Zuyderland’s transition to a decentralized operating model, where domain teams build and maintain their own data products, while a central platform team remains responsible for ingestion pipelines, governance, security, and infrastructure.
Strengthen healthcare interoperability by enabling OpenEHR clinical models for structured clinical data and FHIR messaging for API-driven workflows and real-time integrations.
Theme
Microsoft Fabric
Sector
Healthcare
Customer
Zuyderland
The concept
Zuyderland designed its data architecture around a domain-oriented data mesh operating model, supported by a centrally governed platform. Microsoft Fabric serves as the enterprise analytics SaaS platform, while operational systems remain the authoritative sources for clinical, financial, and operational data.
The platform is structured around three clearly separated layers, ensuring autonomy for domain teams while maintaining security, governance, and consistency at the platform level. Governance is embedded by design, providing full transparency into data lineage, classification, and access across the entire data landscape.
The challenge
Transitioning to a data mesh in a healthcare environment introduced several challenges. The hospital needed to find the right balance between decentralization and unified governance. Ingestion processes had to remain standardized to ensure consistency, traceability, and compliance, while domain teams required the freedom to shape their own data products, models, and analytical outputs. End-to-end data lineage and auditability are essential, particularly because patient data and clinical decision-making depend on strict governance and regulatory oversight.
In addition, the platform had to support two fundamentally different healthcare standards: OpenEHR for clinical data modeling and FHIR for lightweight, API-driven interoperability and real-time communication between systems.
“Through trust, expertise, and collaboration, Zuyderland and Conclusion Intelligence are laying a solid foundation for a future-proof data platform.” Mirko Cruccas, Zuyderland Medical Center
Techniques and technologies
In this project, Conclusion Intelligence assisted Zuyderland in the development of a modern, domain-oriented healthcare data platform. The following methods and technologies were employed:
Microsoft Fabric
OneLake
Microsoft Purview
- OpenEHR clinical models
- FHIR messaging
Python
Result
Zuyderland now operates a modern, centrally governed data platform that reduces infrastructure complexity and provides a scalable foundation for both analytical and operational use cases. The platform serves as a single source of truth for clinical, operational, and financial data, supporting dashboards, advanced analytics, AI-ready datasets, and system-to-system integrations.
By using Microsoft Fabric and OneLake as a unified analytical foundation, data can be reused across domains without duplication, while domain ownership accelerates the delivery of new data products. Support for OpenEHR and FHIR strengthens healthcare interoperability, enabling clinical analytics and operational workflows, including ICU readmission risk prediction and controlled data access for patient portals.
Although the platform is still evolving, it already improves data consistency, governance, and insight delivery, providing a future-proof foundation for continued innovation in digital healthcare, while maintaining strict security, auditability, and compliance requirements.
Want to see more?
OUR SUCCESS STORIES
Need more information?
LET’S TALK!
Unlock the potential of Data & AI to drive smarter decisions, optimize operations, and enhance customer interactions. Whether you like to discuss your idea or need help finding you a solution that fits your needs.