On 11 February 2026, the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG) presented the further development of the digitalisation strategy for the healthcare and nursing sectors. It follows on from the stra-tegy published in 2023, maintains the vision of a people-centred, digitally supported ecosystem by 2030 and continues to structure the measures into the three fields of action of care proces-ses, data, and technologies and applications, but also addresses two other important topics: Europe and artificial intelligence (AI). In terms of timing, the digitalisation strategy divides the projects into short-term measures from 2026 onwards (e.g. introduction of digital initial asses-sment), medium-term steps until 2027/2028 (e.g. complete electronic transmission of doctor's letters) and long-term goals (integrated digital ecosystem).
Care processes
A central component of the further development is the electronic patient record (ePA), which will not only serve as a repository for health information, but will also be expanded to become a "digital companion" in healthcare. The plan is to link a quality-assured digital initial assessment, integrate electronic referrals and expand digital appointment scheduling so that care pathways can be initiated and managed from a single application. By 2030, more than 20 million insured persons are expected to register for active ePA use and benefit from at least seven structured use cases based on standardised health data. In addition, the strategy envisages that from the end of 2027, doctors' letters will be transmitted entirely electronically between service providers in order to reduce media breaks and increase the availability of relevant information.
Further development will prioritise care processes with a high disease burden or recognisable efficiency potential and will be designed jointly with the stakeholders involved, with the ePA playing a connecting role. For nursing care, regular use of the KIM communication service from 2027 onwards and a "nursing care cockpit" to be provided by the nursing care insurance funds, which will bundle information and digital application channels, have been announced. The stra-tegy also addresses training reforms in healthcare professions regulated by federal law in or-der to systematically anchor application-related digital skills, including data interpretation and the use of AI systems.
Data
In the "Data" field of action, further development focuses on improving the availability, struc-turing and linkability of health and care data so that it can be used in a timely manner in care and is compatible with research. One focus is on actively shaping the implementation of the European Health Data Space (EHDS) Regulation at national and European level in order to enable cross-border data use for care and research. To this end, the BMG is developing an interoperability roadmap with more binding specifications ( ) based on internationally recog-nised standards and terminology in order to bring digital added value into care more quickly. At the same time, the transfer of further clinical data types to the ePA is to be accelerated; the data should be as structured as possible, while applications with AI will support the processing and evaluation of unstructured content. In addition, access points and secure processing en-vironments are planned, through which linked data from ePA, routine data, registers, studies and regional data rooms can be used.
For secondary use, the Research Data Centre for Health (FDZ) remains the central point of contact, which is expected to initiate at least 300 research projects by the end of 2026. In the future, the FDZ will be expanded to be "AI-capable" in order to be able to use data for testing, training and validating applications, which should support the further development of data-driven innovations. A comprehensive research pseudonym is intended to facilitate the data protection-compliant linking of health, care, social, billing and ePA data, while at the same time guaranteeing the rights of data subjects in accordance with the EHDS. In addition, the BMG and its subordinate authorities are to be given access to relevant, linked data sets in order to enable data-based decisions on health and care policy.
Technology
To ensure that digital applications function reliably, the strategy addresses the telematics infra-structure (TI) and its user-friendliness. Plans include reducing system complexity, measures to increase stability, mobile access for service providers and a digital check-in for insured persons to simplify processes at the interface with patients. Gematik, as the central body responsible for digital applications, will be strengthened organisationally and given more powers to ensure that agreed standards and regulations are implemented more consistently. To provide legal support for the measures, the BMG has announced a draft bill for a law on digital care and the health data space in the first quarter of 2026.
Europe
The digitalisation strategy highlights Europe as a cross-cutting issue and anchors the connec-tion to the EHDS as a central reference point for cross-border care, research and innovation. The aim is to create a European-compatible data system that provides a uniform framework for national measures, in particular interoperability, data use and ePA further development.
AI
When it comes to AI, the digitalisation strategy addresses both use cases in healthcare and the necessary regulatory support. By 2028, AI-supported documentation is to be actively used in more than 70% of healthcare and nursing facilities to support the creation and structuring of documentation and to make data quality consistently available. To this end, AI real-world labo-ratories are planned as secure test environments that offer regulatory advice on the develop-ment and use of AI applications; in addition, blueprints for compliance documentation are to be available by the end of 2028. Service providers are also to be regularly informed about which AI applications are permitted and in what context in order to ensure legal certainty in their use.
Practical note
The next 6-12 months should be used to anchor ePA-related functions in product roadmaps and to provide technical and organisational support for the fully electronic transmission of doc-tor's letters from the end of 2027. Data and interface models should be aligned with the an-nounced interoperability roadmap and national EHDS implementation at an early stage, and governance for secondary use should be established via the FDZ. For AI, participation in real-world laboratories could be planned and prepared so that AI-supported documentation can be provided in a scalable and compliant manner by 2028. At the same time, the TI changes and stricter gematik requirements should be anticipated and the announced draft bill (Q1/2026) monitored. In nursing care, the KIM communication service from 2027 and the planned "nursing cockpit" should be planned at an early stage.
