The former conhIT had repositioned itself as a platform for digital healthcare with an expanded portfolio of topics, a broader target group and new interactive formats.
At DMEA (April 9-11, 2019), German Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn took the opportunity for a powerful appeal to pick up more speed in the development of digital health solutions and not to leave the topic of digital health to others.
"We have to have an appetite for digital transformation. The alternative is not whether it happens or not, but whether we shape it or suffer it."
Dorothee Bär, German Minister of State for Digitalization, echoed this in her keynote address:
"We've talked so much already, I'd like to see us get more into application."
Of course, issues such as data protection are important, but Germany needs more courage when it comes to digital health in order to take advantage of the enormous opportunities offered by digital applications in medicine and to make life easier for the chronically ill, those in need of care and the elderly.
Gottfried Ludewig, Head of the Department of Digitization and Innovation at the German Federal Ministry of Health, fielded critical questions at the new eHealth Hot Seat format, which came in live from the audience via Twitter and video message.
In doing so, he announced, for example, the digitization law for the second quarter of 2019. But that is not the end of the story. Rather, the digitization aspect should be built into every law.
"We want to use digitization to make the healthcare system better for individual patients in a very concrete way, and we want to do this in small agile steps."
says Ludewig.
After all, Germany has a lot of catching up to do:
"We print 700 million drug prescriptions every year, and 80 percent of doctor-patient communication is by letter or verbally. We simply have to get faster."
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