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Berlin, 10 April 2025
DMEA, dubbed Europe’s leading event for digital health ended in Berlin today.
This year’s event attracted a record number of visitors who were taking through an impressive programme of high-level brainstorming on digitalization in the health sector.
A record 900 exhibitors from 30 countries as well as 470 speakers graced this year’s event., with 20,500 participants attending.
DMEA is the place to be for those looking for diversity in digitilization in the health sector.
There were participants from countries such as the United States and Canada, the United Kingdom, Israel, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Singapore, South Korea, Austria, China, Taiwan and Scandinavia.
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There were over 200 sessions, setting a new record as the leading European platform for digital health. The three-day event showcased the latest developments in digital healthcare and innovative solutions.
Among the highlights on the business calendar at this year’s DMEA was the keynote speech by the German Federal Minister of Health, Prof. Karl Lauterbach, who also doubles as the patron of the event.
Prof. Lauterbach stressed the importance of DMEA describing it as a ‘central component of the digital health transition,’ adding that digitalisation can solve key problems in the healthcare system.
DMEA, says the Minister, brings together the players who are bringing digitalisation to healthcare – where it works. He mentioned projects such as the the electronic patient file, e-prescription and telemedicine that goes to show that digitalisation ‘is not an end in itself, but the key to better medicine, more efficient processes and greater patient safety.’
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Prof. Lauterbach delivered a very powerful speech highlighting digital solutions currently rolling out within the German health sector. Solutions such as the e-prescription, the digital organ donor register as well as the ePA as a huge success.
The ePA is already bringing great benefits for practitioners and patients, simplifying billing and the creation of medication plans.
It emerged during the minister’s address that the chronological documentation of findings or laboratory results could assist patients to have a better understanding of their illnesses thereby increasing their independence.
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It is interesting to note that telemedical processes could be possible in managing simple clinical pictures without undue bureaucratic interventions, thereby saving costs.
Prof. Lauterbach announced that plans are far advanced to roll out the ePA, which was intended initially as a voluntary service for doctors, into a mandatory practice, stressing that security loopholes have been addressed and that data security will remain at the centre of attention in the future.
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The path to digitalization in the health sector, says the minister, would not be compromised.
A number of interesting topics were discussed at this year’s DMEA. Amongst them are the following:
Quick round – Health IT after the election: What’s coming, what’s staying? What will happen to the digitalisation of the healthcare system after the election? Representatives from business, politics, the medical profession and insurance companies discussed this question in the ‘quick round’ at the DMEA.
AI in the healthcare sector: Transformation & Innovation
How can AI also be used in smaller hospitals with lower budgets? What is it already doing for patients or in diagnostics? Where is it about to make leaps in development?
These questions were addressed by the panel ‘AI in healthcare: Transformation and Innovation’ at DMEA 2025 explored these questions in its first part.
bvitg eHealth hotseat – Have hospitals missed out on digitalisation?
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Prof. Dr Henriette Neumeyer, Deputy Chairwoman of the German Hospital Federation (DKG), spoke in favour of user-centric digital solutions at the bvitg eHealth hotseat.
The session was organised and held by the German Health IT Association – bvitg e.V.
In an introductory keynote speech, Henriette Neumeyer admitted that, on the one hand, she sees a high level of digitalisation in hospitals, but that, on the other hand, isolated solutions often still exist. The reason for this is that not enough attention has been paid for a long time to how hospitals can be connected.
She sees the electronic patient file (ePA) as a beacon of hope. However, the current test run in clinics shows that suitable software is still lacking in many places. A higher level of maturity is needed. Henriette Neumeyer considers it important that the ePA continues to be rolled out, particularly in view of the European Health Data Space (EHDS). It will force the German healthcare system to be interoperable in a completely different way than it is today. Structured data is the goal in order to achieve both patient management and the reorganisation of processes. However, she also sees resilience and crisis resistance, for example through cyber security, as important issues that hospitals are best tackling together. This requires the decentralised facilities to be networked, e.g. via hubs.
Users at the centre
Hospitals have already achieved a great deal. Now it is important to emphasise process orientation, intersectorality and patient orientation even more. Overall, she has observed an increasing user-centred approach in hospitals. This means that needs are being addressed more specifically and people are being more involved.
Possible funds made available via the infrastructure fund could be used in future for the further expansion of basic digitalisation financed via the Hospital Future Act (KHZG). If there is no follow-up funding, Henriette Neumeyer fears that the digitalisation of hospitals will take a step backwards. Funding with a sense of proportion is the order of the day. IT systems should be seen as a new infrastructure component with great potential for savings, for example by avoiding duplicate diagnostics.
The next DMEA will take place from 21 – 23 April 2026.
About the DMEA
DMEA is Europe’s leading event for digital health – where decision-makers from all areas of healthcare come together – from IT specialists to doctors, hospital and nursing managers, to experts from politics, business and science.
18,600 participants attended DMEA 2024, around 800 exhibitors presented their innovative solutions and over 350 speakers took to the DMEA stages.
DMEA is organised by the Bundesverband Gesundheits-IT – bvitg e. V. (German Association for Health IT) and is hosted by Messe Berlin GmbH. DMEA is also organised in cooperation with the industry associations GMDS (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Medizinische Informatik, Biometrie und Epidemiologie) e.V., BVMI (Berufsverband Medizinischer Informatiker) e.V. as well as with the participation of KH-IT (Bundesverband der Krankenhaus-IT-Leiterinnen/Leiter) e.V. and CIO-UK (Chief Information Officers – Universitätsklinika).
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