‘AI makes a difference in complex healthcare landscapes’

Artificial intelligence is finding its way into hospitals. This will also be evident at DMEA 2026. What is NEXUS' AI strategy?

Tobias Schlecht: Artificial intelligence is, of course, still an omnipresent topic. At NEXUS, we integrate AI functions into our information systems in a targeted manner, for example, the NEXUS / AI-ASSISTANT or the solutions from Medical AI, which have been part of the NEXUS Group since 2025. The focus is currently on the doctor's letter. We asked our customers which AI tools they would like to see on the medical side. And the AI doctor's letter came out on top with a very clear result. We are now presenting this at DMEA. In addition to NEXUS's own powerful developments, our AI platform offers specialised providers the opportunity to contribute AI tools for specific tasks. There have also been developments in this area. In radiology, connecting powerful external AI solutions via a platform has proven successful. This approach also makes sense in other highly specialised areas.

Daniel Heine: And we integrate our own and other AI assistants not only into our HIS, but also into other information systems, such as our patient data management system (PDMS). Following successful certification in accordance with DIN ISO 13485, Medical AI's AI solutions for clinical decision support meet the regulatory requirements for medical devices. At the same time, we benefit in the field of AI from our strong focus on professional data centre operations, which enables the stable and secure use of AI assistants on a larger scale. This is complemented by our integrated clinical data repository, which makes relevant clinical data available across systems and efficiently.

Keyword: data centre. Is the trend towards cloud computing continuing?

Daniel Heine: Demand is increasing, but this is more of an evolution than a revolution. We have made our products cloud-compatible, but at the same time we are giving hospitals the flexibility they need. We have customers who run NEXUS / HIS regularly in the public cloud, with various cloud providers. We have customers who use hybrid models. We will continue to need classic installations in the future, if only to maintain master data. That's why flexible solutions are important.

As part of the replacement of SAP IS-H, many hospitals are currently renewing their HIS. How can NEXUS score points here?

Daniel Heine: Hospitals choose NEXUS in tenders because our focus is on end-to-end processes rather than isolated functions. As a result, our customer base is growing at an above-average rate. Since 2025, we will have converted eleven more hospitals, seven of them in Berlin alone. What works in our favour is that we work in a modular way, but can also offer a relatively wide range of services from a single source if required. The fact that we have our own highly powerful PDMS, for example, is an argument that works in our favour. Not everyone can offer a continuous ward curve from the central emergency room to the intensive care unit, recovery room and normal ward to discharge.

Tobias Schlecht: Apart from IS-H replacements, since summer 2025 we have also been receiving an increasing number of enquiries in connection with restructuring projects – i.e. hospitals that want to offer more outpatient services or cooperate across locations using telemedicine. This is where hospital reform is casting its shadow, and such projects are also being funded through the Hospital Transformation Fund (KHTF). We are well positioned with our flexible and modular offerings. And to come full circle: well-integrated AI tools can be very helpful here. Networked healthcare landscapes are becoming more complex. AI solutions that ensure correct documentation and billing, for example, can make a real difference. We typically learn about such tools in the context of individual customer projects, then validate them and later offer them more broadly.

How do the current KHTF projects differ from those you have implemented in recent years under the Hospital Future Act (KHZG)?

Daniel Heine: They are much more individual. Some of the clinics have very specific plans. Some are working with us to set up specialist telemedicine solutions, such as a monitoring centre for teleradiology. They are providing funding for this, but need support with implementation. Or they are planning a central configuration management system that will eliminate the need for full HIS administration in each facility. This individuality and heterogeneity makes consulting more complex on the one hand, but at the same time, such projects have a good chance of delivering real added value.

Back to DMEA: Which highlights in particular would you like to draw attention to?

Tobias Schlecht: We are bringing our entire portfolio to DMEA – and with it, a whole host of highlights. We have already talked about AI – this is a consistent theme across all areas: from doctor's notes to clinical decision support and intelligent alerting to ambient listening. At the same time, we are continuously developing our web-based HIS and adding new modules. Personally, I find our failover system based on an FHIR store particularly exciting. We feed it with all live data from the HIS and store it for a certain period of time. If the HIS goes down, for example due to a cyber attack, clinics can then access this data and maintain operations. The approach is not tied to NEXUS / HIS, but can also be transferred to subsystems such as PDMS by connecting an FHIR filter upstream. This is a technically sound solution and very elegant overall. In the laboratory, our solutions cover all specialist areas. We are now presenting a fully digital blood donation process in transfusion medicine. In gynaecology and obstetrics, we now cover the entire process from fertility treatment to pregnancy, birth and beyond. In radiology, the spectrum ranges from portals and telemedicine to AI-supported workflows in RIS. The bottom line is that we are not bringing many individual solutions to DMEA, but rather a portfolio that shows what modern, networked and future-proof IT in healthcare can look like today.