[Digitalization in healthcare: today and in the future]. / Digitalisierung im Gesundheitswesen: heute und in Zukunft.

ABSTRACT

Although Germany continues to struggle with the digital transformation of healthcare, there is reason for optimism. The political will to improve healthcare with digital technologies has been underpinned by numerous legal initiatives since 2018. In addition, there is growing acceptance among healthcare providers and the population. The latter has clearly been driven by the corona pandemic, which underscored the need for more digitized care.Digitalization in healthcare has three key drivers the rapid technological development in data processing, the ever-improving understanding of the biological basis of human life, and growing patient sovereignty coupled with a growing desire for transparency. Prerequisites for digital medicine are data interoperability and the establishment of a networking (telematics) infrastructure (TI). The status of the most important digital TI applications affecting German healthcare are described the electronic patient record (ePA) as its core as well as electronic prescriptions, medication plans, and communication tools such as Communication in Medicine (KIM) and TI Messenger (TIM). In addition, various telemedical offerings are discussed as well as the introduction of digital health applications (DiGA) into the statutory healthcare system, which Germany has pioneered. Furthermore, the use of medical data as the basis for artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms is discussed. While helpful and capable of improving diagnostics as well as medical therapy, such AI tools will not replace doctors and nurses.