Digitalisation in healthcare

Embracing opportunities

Digitalisation has already caused substantial changes to many areas of social life and the economy. It also offers major opportunities for healthcare: not only for accelerating communication and making administrative procedures more efficient, abolishing faxes and printed forms, but also when it comes to the accessibility of patient data whenever and wherever they are needed as a prerequisite for high-quality, effective and people-centred treatment.

In addition, the systematic evaluation of health data will make it easier to detect diseases, facilitate the provision of individualised therapies and offer opportunities for innovative cures. The use of mobile apps harbours opportunities for enabling patients to play a self-determined role in treatment-related decision-making as well as for strengthening health literacy.

This way, digital technologies can help us to better address the challenges that almost all healthcare systems in the western world are currently facing – treating a growing number of older and chronically ill people, funding expensive medical innovations and continuing to ensure high-quality medical care in rural and structurally weak areas.

Key aspects of the digital transformation

In recent years, the Federal Ministry of Health has established the necessary framework for substantially advancing the digital transformation, always with the aim of improving healthcare provision in Germany at all levels, building and providing the necessary structures for a modern healthcare system and data-based medical care and, above all, simplifying peoples’ everyday routines and creating a concrete and tangible benefit for patients and their relatives as well as for physicians and other healthcare providers.

Key projects in this context include the expansion of secure networks in the healthcare system (telematics infrastructure – TI), the introduction of various applications such as the electronic patient record (ePA for everyone), the electronic prescription (e-prescription) and digital health applications (DiGA) for the insured as well as broader use of video consultations and other services in the field of telemedicine.

Digital transformation in healthcare is being progressed under the auspices of the Digitalisation Strategy, among other things through legislation, most recently the Act to Accelerate the Digitalisation of the Healthcare System (Digital Act – DigiG) and the Act on the improved Use of Health Data (Health Data Use Act – GDNG). The core objective of the Digital Act is to set up an electronic patient record (ePA) for all persons with statutory insurance, while the Health Data Use Act is focused on progressing and improving the use of data for research and innovation in healthcare.

In addition to the development and expansion of infrastructure and the establishment of digital services and applications, important parameters have recently been set for the digital advancement of the healthcare system. These include setting up the Health Data Lab (HDL) at the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices and developing the interoperability directory of the Society for Telematics Applications (gematik) into a knowledge platform.

Concrete practical insights are also gained through testing digital innovations in healthcare, for instance in the context of the Innovation Fund, experimental pilot projects or through other funding measures that focus on particular regions or topics.

National Health Portal

Last but not least, the National Health Portal provides German citizens with evidence-based, non-biased and easy-to-understand information on selected health topics, disease patterns and treatment options. This enables them to make informed decisions together with their doctor. The aim is to permanently raise awareness about health topics and thus contribute towards boosting health literacy and improving patient sovereignty. The doctor and psychotherapist search as well as the ICD and OPS code search also help to navigate the healthcare system.

The portal not only provides information on diseases, care benefits and patient rights, but also explains, among other things, the digital healthcare services available, such as the ePA, digital health applications (DiGA) or telemedicine offerings. The health portal helps citizens to correctly assess the services offered, identify individual added values and understand and exploit the different innovation steps brought about by digitalisation for themselves.