the health sector? How can we ensure the focus is always on human well-being? Questions of this kind need to be discussed in a wide social dialog and joint solutions found.
2Breaking down technical barriers
The prerequisites in this case are an extensive high-performance network infrastructure and cutting-edge technology in both health care institutions and private households.
Everyone has the right to protection of their personal data. This must be ensured – and not only with technological means. We need legal conditions that minimize the risk of data misuse without impeding progress.
4Building up expertise
Innovative technologies can only realize their full potential if all users handle them correctly. Medical staff in particular must be given comprehensive training on the use of new technologies.
We need to talk about exactly what digital responsibility can look like. No one individual can decree it – no one company, no one institution, no one government. We can only develop digital responsibility together. Deutsche Telekom CEO Tim Höttges
Right into the living room
“Your vitals are fine. You don’t need to worry.” Karin Müller is relieved about the good news from her family doctor. She signs off and switches off the tablet PC. That’s because she’s sitting in her living room and has just had a video chat with her doctor.
The future is now
In 2020, the coronavirus pandemic brought public life to a virtual standstill for weeks on end. In some areas, however, the virus made things move faster, and that includes the digitalization of the health care system. According to a study conducted in spring 2020 by the Health Innovation Hub of Germany’s Federal Ministry of Health and the Public Health Foundation, 52.3 percent of doctors surveyed offered video consultations. This compares with a figure of just 1.8 percent in 2017. Psychotherapists, physicians in private practice, and general practitioners are making particular use of such consultations.
For the benefit of patients
“Online house calls” save patients long trips to the doctor. Digital platforms also make work easier for doctors and care staff.
The TH360 telehealth platform links hospitals, doctors, care staff, and patients in East Saxony. For instance, patients who have suffered a stroke can be remotely monitored by their physicians and their hospital stays reduced. The platform also allows them to receive care in their home environment.
At the St. Georg hospital in Leipzig, the Antibiotikanetzwerk Sachsen (ABNW, Saxony Antibiotics Network) is being created in collaboration with general practitioners and hospital physicians. The digital diagnostic and consulting office helps doctors use antibiotics responsibly and treat infections.
The hospital information system from Telekom Healthcare, iMedOne, forms the basis for connected work in clinics. In South Africa, the international version of the system is already being used in four clinics in the Western Cape region.
Together with IBM and Capsule Technologies, we developed the first mobile digital patient record for Africa. It not only contains important patient data, it can also automatically record data from medical equipment such as ventilators or dialysis machines.
Everything is connected …
Nobody likes going to hospital, especially when medical staff are overworked and there
are long waiting times. By supporting these staff, intelligent hospital systems such as iMedOne
from Deutsche Telekom can help improve patient care. By the end of 2019, iMedOne was already
installed in some 230 hospitals, where it allows all key processes to be digitized. Treatment
and patient data is shared via secure data networks, is available to all treating physicians and
care staff at the touch of a button on the iMedOne Mobile app, and does not get lost.
The Internet of Things is also making its way into hospitals. Medical equipment such as ventilators and ECG devices are equipped with transmitters so that everyone always knows exactly where they are currently being used. That simplifies procedures – in the emergency room, for example.
All o