SPI Digital Health: Epic Eyes German Debut at University Hospital, but Outcome Anything but Academic

The rumour mill was in full flow at DMEA 2023 in Berlin this week as talk revolved around Epic’s ‘imminent’ debut at a prestigious academic hospital in the German capital.  

There is plenty of substance behind the rumours. German Health Minister Dr Karl Lauterbach has, in recent weeks (including at DMEA), publicly stated his view that German hospital IT is much inferior to US hospital IT. And Dr Peter Gocke, Chief Digital Officer at Charite – Universitatsmedizin Berlin, the hospital in question, recently referred to ‘upcoming Epic upheavals in the German HIS landscape’, talking glowingly of the ability of highly integrated systems such as Epic to contribute significantly to digitisation. These words will resonate strongly in a country in the midst of a multi-billion dollar hospital digitisation programme.