Further development of the eHealth strategy
Berlin, 26.04.2022
Another step on the way to Health City Berlin 2030: After Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and Vivantes – Netzwerk für Gesundheit GmbH introduced the joint digital treatment file in 2021, the smart exchange of medical treatment data is now following. The aim is, among other things, to optimally control the patient flow in the hospital for the best possible care and to gain vital time in critical situations.
The infrastructure for the digital exchange of structured treatment data between Berlin’s largest hospital operators is now ready. In future, the treating staff will be able to access medically relevant patient data such as current laboratory values, vital signs or previously recorded general health data. This offers numerous advantages for the “patient journey” during medical care: multiple examinations can be partially avoided and waiting times for patients and staff can be reduced. Initially, the technology will be tested in the coming months and two concrete applications will be implemented in parallel by autumn 2022.
Dr. Eibo Krahmer, Vivantes Managing Director for Financial Management, Infrastructure and Digitalisation: “Our aim is to offer Berliners modern, high-quality healthcare at all times – in our facilities and in professional cooperation with our partners such as Charité. Central to this are smooth processes and well-functioning interfaces – both technically and organisationally. I am therefore very pleased that the joint IT infrastructure is continuing to take shape and that the exchange of treatment data will soon go live”.
Martin Peuker, Chief Information Officer and Head of IT at Charité:
“With the digital exchange of structured treatment data, we have reached another milestone within our IT cooperation between Charité and Vivantes. We deliberately chose the first two application possibilities in two crucial areas. In infection management, the aim is to network the hygiene databases of both hospitals with each other and with Labor Berlin. The aim is to isolate patients with multi-resistant pathogens early and consistently. When used in intensive care medicine, we contribute to starting treatment without delay by automatically importing the data.”
Live operation from autumn 2022
The following use cases will initially be implemented on the digital infrastructure for the exchange of treatment data by autumn 2022:
1st use case: infection management
In the infectious diseases use case, the hygiene databases of Vivantes and Charité will be networked with each other and additionally with the database of the joint subsidiary Labor Berlin. When admitting patients at Vivantes, the treating staff can thus see at an early stage whether a patient is a carrier of a multi-resistant pathogen, for example – even if the data were originally entered at Charité. This enables early isolation and contributes significantly to the safety of patients and staff.
2nd use case: intensive care medicine
In the area of intensive care medicine, the focus is on providing central vital signs and laboratory parameters in the event of a transfer between Charité and Vivantes. This is initially implemented for patients who require care via ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation), a support system that takes over the patient’s respiratory function outside the body. Within the framework of IT cooperation, existing patient data is transferred to the receiving hospital before the transfer and can be transferred to the systems. Transfer and treatment can thus start without delay.
Data protection has the highest priority in both applications.
In implementing the smart infrastructure, Vivantes and Charité received significant support from the consulting firm “eHealth.Business” and the industry partners “März AG” and “Pine-IT”.