Bert Cappelle
Position: Work Package 4
Who am I and what do I do?
My name is Bert Cappelle. I work as a data engineer at the University Hospital of Ghent (UZ Gent) within the Data Science Institute. My work focuses on enabling and facilitating clinical research by making complex healthcare data accessible and usable for non-technical users, such as clinicians and researchers.
I design and maintain data pipelines, data models, and validation workflows that allow research teams to work with high-quality data without needing deep technical expertise. I am also the technical representative for UZ Gent within the Federated Health Innovation Network (FHIN), which supports federated learning for relevant clinical use cases. In addition, I am leading implementation and maintenance of the Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership (OMOP) Common Data Model (CDM) at UZ Gent.
What am I up to during INDICATE?
Within INDICATE, I support Mathias Syx, the lead of Work Package 4, in his day-to-day activities. WP4 focuses on the technical infrastructure required to enable secure, compliant, and scalable data sharing across participating organizations.
Together, UZ Gent takes on the product owner role for the components developed within WP4. This involves translating project objectives and stakeholder needs into concrete technical requirements, prioritizing development work, coordinating between technical and non-technical partners, and ensuring that the resulting infrastructure is aligned with real-world hospital environments.
In addition, I act as a WP4 representative in the training and education workgroup, where I help ensure that technical infrastructure, requirements, and design choices are clearly translated into training materials and guidance that are understandable and usable for hospitals and data providers.
What motivates me to be part of INDICATE?
I am motivated by INDICATE’s goal of making secure health data sharing workable in real hospital settings. I enjoy contributing to research by helping make high-quality data more accessible for researchers and clinicians.
What do I expect to accomplish within INDICATE?
Within INDICATE, I aim to help develop technical infrastructure and guidance that hospitals can realistically use and maintain. I want to contribute to solutions that make it easier for hospitals to participate in secure and federated data-sharing initiatives and to support research activities.
How does my background or expertise contribute to the goals of INDICATE?
My background in data engineering and my experience working in a hospital environment help me connect technical solutions with everyday practice. In addition, my expertise in the OMOP Common Data Model (CDM) allows me to contribute to interoperable and standardized solutions that support clinical research.
