Anna Engberg

Following the successful pilot phase of a telemedical emergency doctor system deployed in Aachen at the Western border of Germany, the telemedical support of rescue forces is now to be extended to the entire federal state.

Only 22% of the participants at the last HIMSS Swiss eHealth Summit were women. That has to change, says Sunjoy Mathieu, founder of Women in Digital Health.

The Capital Congress of Medicine & Health presents the Hospital Rating Report 2019 - taking stock of insolvency, case numbers and annual financial statements.

The ministry wants to improve early detection of strokes.

In May, the annual meeting of internists in Germany took place in Wiesbaden - and was attended by around 8,300 physicians and experts, as well as 2,000 patients. The 125th Congress of the German Society for Internal Medicine (DGIM) looked at digital medicine and the opportunities, risks and perspectives in connection with major topics such as intensive care medicine, rare diseases, non-drug therapies and health research. So, what opportunities does digital medicine offer the internist? According to speakers at the congress this year, the aim must be to use digitisation tools effectively in order to facilitate earlier diagnosis and better treatments.  "Ultimately, we want to gain more time to turn to the patients - a concern of ours that can be achieved with digital medicine, if used properly," said Professor Claus Vogelmeier, chairman of the event. The conference looked at big data and data security, as well as personalised colorectal cancer screening and the potential for digital tools in specific diseases such as thyroid carcinoma. On the record Doctors should not be controlled by fears, but by hope and optimism, said Professor Vogelmeier, while Frank Ulrich Montgomery, president of the German Medical Association (BÄK), argued that Germany was behind in terms of digitising its healthcare system, particularly when compared to other modern industrialised countries. “In many countries that we regard as developing countries, the possibilities and opportunities of digitisation have been used and understood much more than in our country, " he told delegates at the event. Need for patient empowerment The conference also organised a special ‘Patient Day’, which was attended by around 2,000 people, and, at a press conference, physician and comedian Eckart von Hirschhausen talked about empowering patients through the use of digital tools. "We urgently need transparent, publicly financed jointly financed sites and search engines with evidence-based, tested content without commercial interests," Hirschhausen said. Focus on research centres In addition, the congress presented to the public results from research carried out by the German Centers for Health Research (DZG), in which certain major disease areas are investigated and researched with a result- and application-oriented approach. The aim is to prepare internists for everyday practice and shift the focus to a holistic approach, according to speakers at the event. Meanwhile, with the "Young Internists Forum", the congress was also aimed specifically at students and young doctors of internal medicine who visited it numerous times. More information can be found here. Anna Engberg is a Wiesbaden-based freelance journalist specialising in health and technology.

With smart baby scales, a German startup now wants to tackle problems in the postnatal phase - and create more accurate comparative data worldwide.

Newly-published survey indicates that nearly half of Germans polled believe that the medical care of the future will be digital.

The Swiss Healthcare Startups association wants to better connect the Swiss healthcare market and promote young entrepreneurs.

German medical students can now continue their education in the digital health sector.

The ePrescription is to be established in Germany by 2020. In April, German health minister Jens Spahn spoke at the DMEA 2019 (formerly conhIT) in Berlin about its benefits and opportunities in Germany. The German federal health minister discussed the possibilities of implementation and the added value resulting from ePrescription and other online services for digitising the German healthcare system together with representatives of the German Medical Association, the health insurance funds, the Federal Association of German mail-order pharmacies (BVDVA) and the German Telekom Healthcare and Security Solutions. Spahn evaded concerns about technical hurdles for the patients: German patients would not have to manage the ePrescription on their own. "In the ideal process, the ePrescription will be part of the electronic patient record," said Spahn. "The moment I am in the pharmacy with my electronic health card, the pharmacist can access it." Spahn also emphasised the health benefits of the e-prescription: "We will only gain acceptance for the electronic health record and digitisation among patients, physicians, pharmacists, and anyone else in healthcare when there is finally added value." That could change with the ePrescription, the minister added. "The ePrescription will bring real added value. If we combine it with online consultations or pharmacy delivery services, the range of services offered to patients will be extended to bring the digital component to healthcare,” he said. Therefore, in 2019, appropriate provisions will be made in the renewal of the German Medicines Act (AMG). In a January press release, the German Ministry of Health said that not only drug safety and patient safety should increase, but also the legal conditions for the paperless prescription of medicinal products - both during regular medical visits and telemedicine consultations. The ePrescription should, according to the experts, above all boost the mail-order pharmacy industry. The German market with currently two percent turnover in online drug sales could, for example, now approach the US market, with online sales already accounting for a good quarter of total business. Anna Engberg is a Wiesbaden-based freelance journalist specialising in health and technology.