“Finally Moving Beyond Silos”

The new digital strategy for the German healthcare system is based on “digital before outpatient before inpatient.” Does Deutsche Telekom follow the same idea?

From our point of view, this slogan falls short. It sounds as if the existing care silos – outpatient and inpatient healthcare – are simply being complemented by a third digital silo. That must not happen. We finally need to move beyond these silos and think of all areas of healthcare in a digital and interconnected way. Only then will real added value emerge for all stakeholders – especially for patients. And we must firmly integrate prevention into our thinking. Prevention currently plays virtually no role in the German healthcare system, even though it would significantly ease the burden on the system and enable everyone to live healthier lives.

How can Deutsche Telekom help dismantle these silos?

The fundamental prerequisite for a digitalized ecosystem is a powerful and secure infrastructure. Some believe AI happens inside the smartphone. Without high performance AI data centers, it is nothing more than a blinking toy. We need a real shift in thinking: modern medicine requires this infrastructure – not a server cabinet in the basement of a hospital. If we understand and address this, we can build a high performance future healthcare system that brings data together at the highest security levels. With this infrastructure, we can meaningfully integrate data – thanks to AI, even from existing systems and in any format. With our synedra data platform – our newest member of the Telekom family – this becomes possible. The platform will make its DMEA debut this year, and we will also present concrete hospital projects.

The structural transformation of hospitals is in full swing, supported by the Hospital Transformation Fund (KHTF). What do you recommend to hospital customers?

What’s crucial is that KHTF funding must not only serve the transformation of concrete and buildings. It must focus on rebuilding care structures. We see enormous potential in teleconsultations. They can help shape the structural transformation more effectively, especially in rural areas. The aim must be to provide diagnostic and therapeutic services in regional or even supraregional, digitally interconnected clusters – without constantly moving the patient.

What is needed to achieve this?

Digitally supported care structures require powerful data and telemedicine platforms. And these, in turn, rely on redundant fiber connections and reliable, secure 5G campus networks. We offer the complete foundational infrastructure and can build upon it with our own solutions – from the data platform to innovative cybersecurity solutions for clinical workplaces to TI Connect, our software connector that finally marks the end of the hardware era for connecting to the telematics infrastructure. At the same time, we have never aimed to do everything ourselves. We do not believe in monolithic or closed systems, but in open, innovation friendly ecosystems.

With digital identities for patients and healthcare professionals, Telekom offers another key component of digital ecosystems. Will these digital health IDs become part of the European EUDI Wallet, which is to be established by the end of 2026?

In the field of digital identities, healthcare is – for once – a frontrunner. From the very beginning, we ensured that the architecture of the digital identities we developed for health insurers aligns with the EUDI Wallet architecture at the European level. We are a central player in developing EUDI Wallet use cases and integrating relying parties – the so called verifiers – in healthcare. In the future, the electronic health card will be stored in the EUDI Wallet, and health IDs can also be created based on the digital identity from the EUDI Wallet. The EUDI Wallet is a forward looking project with major impact and will massively simplify access to healthcare. At DMEA, we will demonstrate this with projects where the EUDI Wallet, together with the digital identity and the eGK, can be used for check in – for example, in hospitals.

Back to this year’s DMEA: what will you highlight at Deutsche Telekom’s booth?

Among other things, we will showcase our synedra data platform, AI applications for the emergency department shock room, infrastructure components such as TI Connect, and new applications for the Health ID and EUDI Wallet. Above all, we want to make end to end digitalization in healthcare tangible – from prevention to emergency care in hospitals, or from application submission to approval in the insurance sector. Anyone interested in seeing the complete picture of a digital healthcare ecosystem – from connectivity to infrastructure to AI applications – will find exactly what they’re looking for at our booth.