Healthcare x COVID – Drive digitalization and improve preparedness (2025)

The challenges faced by healthcare in general, and also by the healthcare industry, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic are immense. That is why we need an open and informed discussion about the lessons learnt and about how we can prepare for the the tasks ahead. I recently had the pleasure to participate in a forum of healthcare specialists (Fachforum Gesundheitswirtschaft) organized by Tagesspiegel, a national German daily newspaper. Moderated by Christian Tretbar, Editor in Chief of the Tagesspiegel, I joined Dr. Stefan Franzke and Dr. Kai Uwe Bindseil of Berlin Partner for Business and Technology, as well as Dr. Johannes Danckert, Managing Director Clinic Management at Vivantes, to discuss these important issues.

Improving the patient journey

One of the key takeaways of the conversation was that we need to think about where in the COVID patient journey digitalization can help to improve patient care and patient outcomes. As a medical doctor and scientist, this has been on my mind a lot since the beginning of the pandemic. I am convinced that digitalization will help us get patients to the experts that can help them best – in less time and with less resources invested. We have already seen that digitalization and artificial intelligence can play a crucial role in addressing new challenges in healthcare. The US government, for example, has partnered with AI research institutes to review the scientific literature to improve understanding of COVID and AI is already being successfully used in other medical fields such asdrug discovery or robotic surgery. When will we start using this potential to innovate the patient journey?

Digitalization needs to be concrete and targeted

So far, we have talked about digitalization, AI and the necessary adjustments to data protection mostly in general terms. It is high time that we become concrete and start to really implement measures to support decision-making of doctors and improve patient care. In the case of new COVID-waves, it is crucial that the diagnosis is made earlier and that vulnerable patients can be identified more quickly and easily. As experience has shown, this is only achieved inadequately through conventional measures such as newsletters, online information sites or podcasts – many doctors, quite rightly, feel that they are drowning in the flood of information. We have to think about new patient-centered digital solutions that are oriented towards the patient, but also towards the doctor's everyday life. It is paramount that we act now to stay ahead of the curve and lay the foundation for successful and sustainable health digitalization.

It was a pleasure to discuss these important issues and I think that we should continue to exchange ideas in the future to make more progress together.

Want to see the whole conversation (German only)? Have a look here: