Practices moving towards a digital ecosystem

The electronic patient record (ePA) takes off. More and more medical practices are using digital applications with and without artificial intelligence. In times of scarce resources, outpatient care has a political tailwind anyway. In short, there have rarely been so many hot topics for doctors in outpatient care to discuss at DMEA. Jens Naumann, Managing Director of medatixx, a company specialising in medical practice and MVZ software, wants to support practices in their digital transformation as well as possible.

The electronic patient record is making inroads into the healthcare system, and this is an important topic for medical practices. How does the ePA support doctors?

What we see with most of our customers is a relaxed attitude of expectation. Many believe that the ePA has the potential to improve the information base, starting with medication. However, the ePA will only be a real pleasure to use if it is deeply and ergonomically incorporated into the practice software.

How is medatixx implementing the ePA?

We are incorporating the ePA as deeply as possible into all our practice software solutions, from x.isynet and x.vianova to x.concept, x.comfort, EL, medatixx and psyx, our solution for psychotherapy. What does this mean in concrete terms? Let's take the electronic medication list (eML). It is filled on the ePA server with the medication prescribed by e-prescription and dispensed by a pharmacy, thus improving the information situation in the medical care process. This overview can be retrieved from the ePA and transferred to the practice software. It would be easy to generate a PDF, but that wouldn't be helpful for the practice. We have therefore implemented eML in our practice software solutions based on structured data, so that the medication data can be directly transferred for their own documentation and further prescriptions. In addition, we support the introduction of ePA with comprehensive information on our knowledge platform dip and with specific trainings at our medatixx academy. More than 5,000 customers have already taken part in meet medatixx, our digital user meetings about ePA for all. On the other hand, there has never been anything like the ePA in Germany before, so it is understandable that some people are a little uncertain. We provide information to allay their fears.

Outpatient care is also provided by medical care centres (MVZ) and practice networks, which often operate regionally and sometimes nationally. Is it worth their while to visit the DMEA booth?

Definitely. In the area of MVZs/clinical outpatient departments, we will be showcasing our new software solution xentro at the DMEA, which is aimed at MVZs and large organisational structures in outpatient care. Such large structures have higher requirements than individual practices when it comes to topics such as statistics or role and rights management. We map these with xentro - and are already experiencing a great deal of interest in the market. From a technical point of view, xentro is a further development of our successful medical practice software medatixx, designed for this sector.

Outpatient care has always been strongly influenced by health policy. What do you expect from the new German government - and the DMEA - in terms of digital policy?

More than ever, we need clearly defined responsibilities for the various stakeholders. With the GDAG, the previous government made an attempt, that was in many ways a step in the right direction. In the end, however, the law did not make it over the finish line. A clear definition of responsibilities remains on the agenda, as does the clarification of the role of gematik, with a clear demarcation between state and private economy tasks. In addition, the adaptation of the regulatory framework to make it more digital-friendly should be continued: Digital tools for medical practices are still being held back in some cases. For example, there are still caps on video consultations and legal uncertainties about the spatial limitations of online treatment. We will continue to address these issues with the DMEA to raise awareness among decision-makers in the new legislature. We continue to believe that it is necessary to offer medical practices innovation funding for IT solutions, in analogy to the Hospital Future Act. As far as the next steps in telematics infrastructure and ePA are concerned, our wish is for honest expectation management and realistic deadlines - I think I speak for the entire sector in this respect.

Keyword health policy: One political trend is the increasing pressure for more interoperability. Practice IT systems have often not been optimally positioned in this respect. Is this changing?

Interoperability will be one of our main topics at this year's DMEA. We welcome the fact that politicians want to create more clarity with structures such as the Competence Centre for Interoperability in the Healthcare System (KIG). There is a need for authorities that can define standards and have the leverage to enforce them. However, we cannot and do not want to wait for all this to be set up by the government. That is why we are showcasing our medatixx HealthHub at the DMEA, which enables universal, manufacturer-independent data exchange with our practice software solutions. This will make it much easier for medical practices to connect innovative digital applications to their own practice IT.

The innovative digital applications you mentioned also increasingly use AI. What added value does this bring? What are the possible application scenarios?

We firmly believe that AI will be able to relieve doctors of many administrative tasks and medical decisions in the future. Think of applications that transcribe doctor-patient conversations, suggest structured documentation and trigger administrative processes in practice software - or applications that help detect certain diseases at an early stage or support diagnosis and therapy. From the second half of 2025, we will start offering AI-based assistance systems for administrative and medical purposes for our practice IT solutions - strictly quality-controlled, of course.