Digital Healthcare: Requirements for a Successful Transformation

Digital transformation of healthcare is the dominating discussion topic for all healthcare stakeholders. Digital transformation encompasses all areas of healthcare and is far more than digital healthcare applications (DiGA), digital care applications (DiPA), telemedicine applications, telematics infrastructure activities, and applications from the fields of eHealth, mHealth, or Telehealth. All existing care processes and structures in the healthcare system are undergoing an inventory in order to transfer analog components of care into a digital context. The digital transformation is not taking place exclusively in economic sectors such as healthcare, but is a process of change throughout society in the collection, use, provision, linking and evaluation of information (=data). For the healthcare sector, it is clear that different technical concepts are used, while digital healthcare takes place in different places and at different times, may include different user (groups) and retains, expands or changes the healthcare context. Established healthcare functions such as diagnostics, therapy, documentation and the management of healthcare services are retained and transferred to a digital context. In addition, new application areas will emerge, such as the overarching access to health data by different actors, real-time-driven monitoring systems of holistic health data, (clinical) decision systems, or the provision of data for health services. Even if the majority of the digital transformation has not yet taken place, it is assumed that these functions and application areas of healthcare will serve to sustainably improve the quality of care and benefit the well-being of all (future) patients. For the transfer of existing processes into a digital context and the establishment of new application areas, there are prerequisites for healthcare institutions and the healthcare system itself.