January 20, 2022
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Digitalization in the healthcare and public sector is underway – unfortunately not always at the desired pace. We have briefly summarized the current status and show what is important this year for players in the sector.
More than 6,000 applications with a funding volume of approximately 3 billion euros have been submitted to the Federal Office for Social Security (BAS) by December 31, 2021. Of these, only about 272 million in funding have been approved at the present time. So the need for investment in better digital infrastructure, modern emergency capacities and information security at hospitals is existing – but the investment backlog is likely to delay implementation. In the KHZG, funding was originally planned for 3 years; however, hospitals and clinics currently assume that this period will be extended due to the current developments.
The Online Access Act obliges the federal and state governments to offer their administrative services electronically via administrative portals by the end of 2022. The 6th "Monitor Digitale Verwaltung" (Digital Administration Monitor) of the Normenkontrollrat came to the conclusion as early as September 2021 that it would no longer be possible to implement the law on time by the end of 2022. For the coming legislative period, the Normenkontrollrat makes 8 recommendations, including the introduction of a binding standardization regime for public IT, platform concepts and cloud strategies to simplify federal architecture management, and "data-driven governance" as a binding basic principle. This makes it clear that choosing the right technologies plays a crucial role for digitalization.
The importance of decision support systems (EUS) in healthcare will continue to grow, all market participants agree on this. By the way, EUS are being promoted via the KHZG. However, implementation is difficult, partly due to the Medical Devices Act.
The relevance of cloud solutions will continue to increase in 2022, and with it the demands on security and data protection. Cloud business security is therefore becoming increasingly important, especially in the healthcare and public sector, and industry players would do well to position themselves in this field with reliable solutions and partners now at the latest.
Digitalization is not a stand-alone project – and it always has to be people-focused. This knowledge will make the trend towards partnerships in healthcare continue this year. This means that silo thinking and boundaries must be dismantled slowly, and the focus has to shift to the user. Technological solutions must be able to reflect this.
The relevance of digitalization in the healthcare and public sector is no news to the players involved. However, legal regulations, technological challenges, logistics and organizational struggles are slowing down implementation in many places. This makes it all the more important to take precautions at an early stage with the right technologies and partners in order to meet the challenges of 2022 and of the future.
