SPMS - SERVICOS PARTILHADOS DO MINISTERIO DA SAUDE EPE

Their core work

SPMS is Portugal's national shared services entity for the Ministry of Health, responsible for the country's health IT infrastructure, digital health platforms, and eHealth interoperability. They manage the technical backbone that enables Portuguese healthcare institutions to exchange patient data domestically and across EU borders. In H2020 projects, they bring real-world national health system implementation experience — testing and deploying standards for electronic health records, drug identification systems, and cross-border patient summaries. Their involvement typically means a project's outputs will be validated against an actual national health system, not just in a lab.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their early H2020 period (2015–2018), SPMS focused on foundational eHealth work: establishing interoperability standards, conformity assessment schemes, and cross-border patient summary exchange (eStandards, EURO-CAS, Trillium II). From 2019 onward, their focus shifted decisively toward health data infrastructure at scale — European EHR exchange frameworks, pharmaceutical data standardisation (IDMP), health research clouds, and integrated digital health strategies. The trajectory shows a clear move from "making systems talk to each other" to "building the data layer for European health research and care delivery."

SPMS is moving toward becoming a national anchor for European health data spaces — expect them to be active in EHDS (European Health Data Space) implementation and health data reuse for research.

How they like to work

SPMS operates predominantly as a participant (9 of 10 projects), joining large consortia as the entity that brings national health system reality to the table. With 165 unique partners across 30 countries, they are a well-connected hub rather than a loyal-to-few-partners organization. Their one coordination role (X-eHealth) was their largest-funded project, suggesting they step into leadership when the topic aligns closely with their national mandate — EHR exchange frameworks — but otherwise prefer to contribute implementation expertise within broader consortia.

Exceptionally broad network of 165 unique partners across 30 countries, reflecting deep integration into the European eHealth policy and implementation community. Their reach spans nearly all EU member states, positioning them as one of the better-connected national health IT bodies in the H2020 ecosystem.

What sets them apart

SPMS is not a research lab or a consultancy — they are the operational backbone of Portugal's national health IT system. This means any project involving SPMS gets access to a real, production-scale national health infrastructure for testing and validation. For consortium builders, this is a rare asset: most eHealth projects struggle to move beyond pilot environments, and SPMS can provide the governmental authority and technical infrastructure to deploy at national scale.

Highlights from their portfolio

• X-eHealth
  Their only coordinator role and largest-funded project (€576K) — defined the European EHR exchange framework covering lab results, discharge reports, and medical imaging.
• UNICOM
  Largest overall project participation (€418K, running to 2024) focused on global medicine identification standards (IDMP), connecting EMA, pharmacovigilance, and cross-border drug databases.
• HealthyCloud
  Signals their strategic move into health research data infrastructure, addressing FAIR principles, cloud computing, and HPC for health — positioning for the European Health Data Space era.