T-Systems boss says e-health based on integration

Achieveing connected, interopreable e-health systems in Europe, particularly in hospitals, will increasingly be based on the ability to successfully integrate existing systems and data, says the head of one of Europe’s most successful e-health suppliers.

In an exclusive interview in-depth interview with E-Health Europe, Hubert Haag, head of the healthcare dvision of T-Systems – the networking and IT services arm of Deutsche Telecom – says his company will not develop a replacement next generation HIS product but instead focus on integration.

As part of this strategy Hubert says T-Systems will be announcing further projects with Austrian partner and integration middleware specialist Tiana.

Strategically, T-System’s focus on integration is likely to lead to a move away from supplying traditional hospital software systems.

Despite owning and offering the ish-med HIS product, acquired when Deutsche Telekom took over DaimlerChrysler subsidiary Debis in 2000, Haag says T-Systems does not plan to replace the product with a next generation system, such as those under development by Siemens or iSoft.

“HIS certainly is a strategic topic for us. But when I look at what is happening at the moment in the HIS market, I am convinced that HIS solutions in the future will look different than they look today,” said Hubert. Instead he predicted that integration will play a far more prominent role.

Hubert told EHE the T-Systems’ ish-med HIS product, which has around 200 existing customers in Austria and Germany, fitted well with this approach. “Our ish-med is highly compatible with this approach, but T-Systems will not develop its own next generation HIS like Siemens, TietoEnator or iSoft are doing at the moment.”

But rather than leading to the ‘sunsetting’ of the ish-med product Hubert says Siemens’ 2006 acquisition of T-Systems former HIS partner GSD, has actually spurred development. “Since Siemens is a stronger partner in financial terms than GSD was before, I would say that, if anything, development of ish-med is accelerating in the new partnership.”

Elsewhere in the in-depth interview Hubert talks to EHE about T-Systems’ strategic role in delivering Germany’s e-health smartcard project – where it is responsible for delivering the national backbone network, and outlines its activities in key European markets.

The full interview with Herr Hubert can be read here.