The Federal Ministry of Health of Germany has awarded a contract to the DigitalRadar consortium in collaboration with HIMSS, to measure the degree of digitisation of hospitals. 

HIMSS will be working together with research and advisory partners to deliver the project — including the Institute for Applied Health Services Research (inav), the hospital consultancy firm Lohfert & Lohfert and the Leibniz Institute for Economic Research (RWI).

The initiative is led by Prof. Dr Sylvia Thun from Charité University Medicine and by Prof. Dr Alexander Geissler from the Medical School at the University St. Gallen.

WHY IT MATTERS

This move follows Germany’s Federal and State governments investing up to €4.3 billion in the digital infrastructure of the country’s 1,800 hospitals.

The DigitalRadar Consortium will work in three phases to build on this collaboration.

In the first phase, the DigitalRadar consortium is developing a standardised assessment and online evaluation tool in line with the funding dimensions of the Hospital Future Fund. The customised German model is based on nationally and internationally established maturity models and draws from HIMSS’s experience in evaluating the digital maturity of 65,000 healthcare organisation worldwide. 

In the second phase, the consortium will evaluate the maturity levels of hospitals in two rounds of structured self-assessments in the years 2021 and 2023.

Finally, the Federal Ministry of Health will be presented with a longitudinal study and a scientific evaluation on the impact of the investment program on the digitisation of the hospitals.

"DigitalRadar makes reference to the funding dimensions of the German Hospital Future Fund and to the particularities of the German hospital landscape and merges these with the approaches of accepted and already established maturity models."

-Prof. Dr med Sylvia Thun, project leader at DigitalRadar

 

THE LARGER CONTEXT

Over the past years, HIMSS has evaluated the digital maturity of more than 500 German hospitals with the EMRAM maturity model.

ON THE RECORD

Prof. Dr med Sylvia Thun, project leader at DigitalRadar, said: "DigitalRadar makes reference to the funding dimensions of the German Hospital Future Fund and to the particularities of the German hospital landscape and merges these with the approaches of accepted and already established maturity models. As a result, hospitals not only receive a national assessment but also an indicator of their international position along with scientifically sound recommendations for action. We therefore pave the way for further international connectivity and networking of the German health care system."

Hal Wolf, President & CEO of HIMSS, said: "A hospital’s advancement in digital maturity opens doors to improved patient services, modern treatment methods and international research and collaboration. Digial capacity has proven to be an effective step toward better health outcomes and improved capability of health systems to address future challenges such as demographic shifts, financial pressures and population health responses. HIMSS is thankful to receive the trust of the Federal Ministry of Health of Germany and our consortium partners to deliver this project.”

Visit the DigitalRadar Consortium Website (in German).

Learn more about the Hospital Future Act.