My job title is “Head of Digital at Helios Deutschland” – I am part of the Executive Leadership Team at Helios. In this role I am responsible for everything to do with digitalization. In practice, this means making technologies usable for Helios to achieve two main goals: firstly, improving the quality of patient care and, secondly, increasing productivity within our hospitals. It is not just about using AI; it is also about optimizing processes and reducing bureaucracy, so our colleagues have more time for the patients. We can learn a lot from other industries that are very process-oriented here.

I am mostly interested in creating genuine added value for our patients and colleagues through digitalization. There is a lot of potential for digitalization, especially within the healthcare sector. Whether it is about using AI to digitize and analyze paper documents or standardizing processes like admitting patients – there are lots of processes across many areas that we can improve and make more efficient. I find the fact that we work closely with the people who use our solutions in the hospital particularly rewarding. We are not working in a vacuum – we go to the hospitals and speak to the doctors and nursing staff to find out where the issues are.

Of course. The process used for admitting patients is a good example: we all know how much paperwork is often still required for admissions. Simply scanning the documents doesn’t help – you are still left with the paperwork; it just has been digitized. It is more about standardizing the process here and extracting the relevant information from the documents in the form of structured data. Or even better – collating the data in a structured way from the start.

Another project concerns automatically translating doctors’ letters into simple structured documents for healthcare professionals and into simple language for patients. In this case, we are working with a physician/expert in medical correspondence to formulate and sketch out a project and then discussing it with our colleagues at AI CoE of Fresenius Digital Technology (FDT) and Fresenius Digital Solutions (FDS). The team is then building a prototype which we will test with the end users to see if it meets the requirements. There will then be a few iterations and at some point, the solution will be developed and implemented.

I enjoy the interdisciplinary collaboration within our team and with different departments at Fresenius. I also like the fact that we are always working with a close connection to the needs of our hospitals and are able to test lots of new ideas and tools as part of our projects – it keeps the job varied. In all of these projects, we work closely with medical and technical professionals at the hospitals. This is the only way to ensure that the solutions work at the practical level. One major advantage is that, as the largest clinic operator in Germany and Europe with over 80 hospitals and around 230 medical care centers, we can define the standard for everyone, so our efforts are worthwhile. But this also represents a challenge, as the processes are not standardized everywhere. It means that we often have to start by defining a standard before we can implement it as part of the technical solution. There is also the fact that, at the end of the day, we have a direct impact on the future of healthcare provision, and this is really fulfilling. Even though I am not standing at the operating table myself and am not treating people as a medical professional, I still feel like I can at least help indirectly. And this motivates me for sure.

We are small and see ourselves as a cross-sectional team with the task of driving forward digitalization within the company. We put together teams from all parts of the company for each of the different topics and then manage these teams and carry out the projects.

We have the major advantage of being able to benefit from huge economies of scale thanks to our position as the largest operator of private hospitals in Germany and Europe. When we develop a solution, we can roll it out into over 80 hospitals and 230 medical care centers. This makes us a very powerful organization. At the same time, being part of the Fresenius Group gives us access to extensive resources and expertise, particularly in the field of AI and digitalization. As I have mentioned, we work closely with the AI Center of Excellence of Fresenius Digital Technology (FDT) and Fresenius Digital Solutions (FDS) to quickly turn new ideas into prototypes and test them. This combination of size, resources and innovative power is quite unique within the German healthcare sector. When we develop something, it has a real impact on lots of different units across Germany.

I studied Industrial Engineering and then went on to work in a management consultancy. Even back then, my work focused on medical technology, pharmaceuticals and hospitals. I worked in healthcare as a student trainee and am from a family of doctors, so I have a natural affinity with the topic. I then moved to the medical technology sector, where I digitalized entire operative processes and accompanied digitalization, including in hospitals, as part of various roles. That is how I came to know Helios.

I would say that at Fresenius, and especially at Helios, you have a unique opportunity to play a part in the digital transformation of healthcare and you can really make a difference. We have set ourselves the target of being the digital pioneers in German healthcare. It is an exciting and meaningful responsibility. We work with the latest technologies and can implement our ideas within a large corporation. But we also have the flexibility and dynamism of a team of innovators. We are helping to improve healthcare for millions of patients. If you are interested in the digitalization of healthcare, I couldn’t think of a better place to work in Germany. I also really like the company culture.

You should definitely have an affinity with both worlds. You need to feel comfortable in the world of hospitals and in the world of technology – and you need to be able to speak both languages. I am always looking for energetic people with good spirits and a desire to work in an environment that is undergoing extreme change. Digitizing hospitals isn’t all that structured at the moment – and this applies to the entire industry, not just to us – but it harbors enormous potential for innovation. Professional background could be wide-ranging and that is certainly the case in our team. The most important thing is to have a keen interest and to understand the context – candidates need to be able to think about both the process and the technology. This is more important than any kind of specialist training.