Ensuring Interoperability in Procurement: Hospitals Driving the Change
InteroperabilitÀt in der Vergabe: Wie KrankenhÀuser beim Einkauf die Weichen stellen
Summary
The DGBMT (German Society for Biomedical Engineering) recommends that hospitals leverage their purchasing power to establish 'interoperability' as a mandatory criterion when procuring medical technology and IT systems. This change can be achieved by integrating it into the procurement process itself, rather than solely relying on new legislation.
Details
In its Position Paper, the DGBMT argues that "connected and intelligent medical technology" should drive a modern healthcare system, positioning interoperability as an essential purchasing criterion. Hospitals possess significant market power when buying medtech and IT products, which can be used to enforce adherence to standards without needing new laws. Technically, international standards for syntactic and semantic interoperabilityâincluding HL7 FHIR, SNOMED CT, and LOINCâare already available. However, current challenges include the use of proprietary interfaces, incomplete semantic consistency, and insufficient cybersecurity/lifecycle concepts. Organizational hurdles are also significant, such as segregated responsibilities between medtech and IT, staff shortages, and inadequate funding models. The DGBMT specifically recommends setting FHIR-based interfaces as a minimum requirement, mandating the explicit mention of open international standards in tenders, and requiring proof of conformity rather than mere declarations of intent. Furthermore, the VDE ITG Beirat Qualifizierung HealthCare plans to develop an application rule containing binding minimum requirements for operators and manufacturers.
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