The German Health Minister reveals his plans for the next months

Strategy for digitalization of healthcare

At the end of April, the German Health Minister, Prof Dr Karl Lauterbach, had already shared his vision and plans for one of the 5 key projects, the digitalization of healthcare, at the DMEA conference.

He admitted that, although the pandemic had accelerated the digitalization of healthcare in many aspects, this progress was not very coordinated. He, therefore, wants to develop an overarching strategy in collaboration with all stakeholders.

Stakeholders

The BMG will be driving the strategy development, alongside the self-governed bodies in the health sector (i.e. G-BA, KBV, KZBV, GKV-SV, pharmacy associations and DKG), and the care sector.

It was flagged that it will be important that the involved stakeholder don’t just emphasise their demands and wishes on the strategy, but work on a shared vision. There might even be some sanctions if not all participants work towards the common goal.

The organization of the stakeholders further complicates this though. The care sector is not set up as a self-governed body. Thus, the structure needs a political change first, before the care sector can get involved in the digitalization strategy.

Strategy areas

The BMG, under the lead of Dr Susanne Ozegowski, is expected to share a strategy process after the parliament’s summer break. It will cover three main areas:

1. The strategy aims to better equip the digital healthcare system for possible future pandemics. Particularly, it needs to strengthen the public health service.
2. Large-scale digitization projects such as electronic patient records or electronic prescriptions must finally be launched.
3. The strategy needs to consider the future, especially regarding the telematics infrastructure 2.0 and data use.

Experience to date

It is clear that the actual use of the digitalization solutions will determine whether the strategy is a success or failure.

Electronic patient records

Lauterbach sees electronic patient records as the key tool in the digitalization of the German health care system. They have been available nationwide for a while, but their use is still minimal. So far, 453,000 records were available by the end of April. If the development continues at the same speed, it will take over another 200 years, until all SH-insured people have their own electronic records. The key reasons for the slow uptake are believed to be no advertisements, no communication of the benefits, the complicated opt-in system, and the optional use for clinics and hospitals.

Electronic prescriptions

Similarly, the use of electronic prescriptions is still low. Only about 30,000 were issued so far, which reflects the number of paper prescriptions written every 10 minutes. For patients, there is no perceived difference in whether they use a paper version or a digital version of the prescription. For clinicians, it currently only means an additional administrative burden.

To offer their full benefit, electronic prescriptions would need to be linked to a patient’s health card with NFC and PIN protection. However, only about 10,000 people currently have these cards.

Now, the SHI funds plan to develop an alternative system but have not shared any details on this. They revealed though that from autumn 2022 onwards, they will make repeat prescriptions available electronically. This should save time for clinicians and patients with chronic diseases.