“Requirements are changing”

A cloud-based hospital information system (HIS) was long considered a challenge in German-speaking countries. At DMEA 2026, Dedalus is using a case study to demonstrate that it is possible. What exactly did you do?

There have been individual hospital applications running in the cloud for some time now—speech recognition, for example. But moving an entire HIS to the cloud is still unusual in German-speaking countries. We have now implemented this at Heilig-Geist-Hospital Bingen with our ORBIS HIS and other applications such as our HYDMedia archiving system, as well as interfaces to third-party systems. Live operations began in early January. We implemented this project within six months in collaboration with Asklepios IT GmbH, using the AWS cloud, which is our exclusive partner in the hyperscaler segment. Even though Bingen is a smaller hospital with 132 beds, this was a major step for everyone involved. In April of this year, we will have our next, somewhat larger ORBIS customer, who will be procuring ORBIS and other applications from the AWS Cloud. We have university-affiliated customers who have a concrete interest in cloud-based HIS solutions.

How do hospitals benefit when their IT is fully or largely in the cloud?

They then require very little on-premises infrastructure. The overall system is more flexible and easier to scale, which can be extremely valuable in an era when hospitals are merging, restructuring, and forming regional networks. Requirements are changing, sometimes at lightning speed, and with a cloud-based HIS, customers can respond to them more quickly. IT security is another strength of the cloud. Security is completely outsourced, and the systems are always up to date. Availability is also generally better with cloud installations than with on-premises installations. I also see increasing advantages in terms of hardware, as hardware prices for AI data centers are skyrocketing right now. Of course, cloud installations truly demonstrate their full potential in conjunction with managed services contracts. For us, this is called Dedalus Managed Cloud Services. I am convinced that this is the future. And we will showcase this future at DMEA.

Speaking of AI data centers: AI tools are increasingly finding their way into the HIS world. What does Dedalus have in store in terms of AI at DMEA 2026?

Quite a lot, and we’re no longer talking about pilot projects, but about market-ready tools based on large language models (LLMs) that we can offer on a regular basis. A key focus here is language. Our ORBIS Speech Assistant, which we developed in collaboration with Corti, listens in on doctor-patient conversations and transcribes the medical history—directly into the corresponding fields in the ORBIS HIS. This is a huge relief and enables doctors and nurses to better focus on the patients. This can be expanded to other scenarios beyond the medical history, such as diagnostic reports. At the DMEA, we’re also showcasing our AI-powered discharge summary, another market-ready product, and our ORBIS Buddy, an LLM-based chatbot that allows users to query medical knowledge portals. Thieme and Elsevier are two of our partners here, and we’re open to further collaborations. We are continuously expanding these features and also broadening the range of active tasks that ORBIS Buddy can perform. As a result, the chatbot is increasingly becoming a daily aid for medical staff. We are also increasingly using LLM-based tools for coding support. And in the field of digital image archiving (PACS), we have added a new product to the DMEA portfolio—DeepUnity Synopsis—which we just launched at the RSNA conference in Chicago. This tool allows radiologists to use a large language model (LLM) to generate a summary of a patient’s complete medical history.

Are rule-based decision support systems outdated?

Not at all. We use both LLM-based and rule-based tools and consider which approach is most appropriate for each scenario. In diagnostic or therapeutic contexts, rule-based tools have clear advantages. We’ve been in the game here with clinalytix Medical AI—for quite some time now, by the way. This is a Class IIa-certified medical device for clinical decision support, such as predicting sepsis or acute kidney failure. We also use rule-based systems for all kinds of scoring, such as the automatic calculation of the National Early Warning Score (NEWS 2), which is used to assess the severity of conditions in the emergency room.

Dedalus is the largest HIS provider in the DACH region. What is currently a particular concern for you?

The entire shift toward outpatient care—this applies to all HIS providers. The shift toward outpatient care will also be a major topic of discussion at the DMEA, especially since hospital reform will further intensify the pressure in this direction. In some cases, entire locations are being converted—though we haven’t seen many actual site closures yet. Medical care centers (MVZs) are also an important topic for many of our customers. We have fully integrated outpatient billing. In addition, we are currently considering how we can better address the specific needs of MVZs in the future.

A major challenge in the inpatient hospital IT market remains the widespread replacement of SAP-based systems. How does this affect Dedalus?

As far as staffing is concerned, we continue to hire extensively. Which isn’t exactly easy. We don’t participate in every tender, but we do take part in quite a few. A highlight was certainly the Nuremberg Hospital, where we managed the migration from SAP and i.s.h.med to ORBIS in just 14 months. That was quite an achievement. In July, the University Hospital Erlangen will go live—another massive project. In this context, we have also won tenders from several large hospital groups over the past few months: Westmünsterlandkliniken (IS-H), Diakonie Kliniken Bad Kreuznach (ISH, i.s.h.med), and the Mavie Med private clinics in Austria (IS-H). The fact that we are now competing with one or two new providers in such tenders spurs us on. A little fresh air can only do the market good. We’re also taking a very close look at the new solutions, because as a long-standing market leader, we naturally have the ambition to become even better in the future. That’s another reason why we’re looking forward to the DMEA!