Digitalization saves lives: Thuringia's Digital Agency improves care for emergency patients

Published

15.10.2025

Author

Franziska Gerlach

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Digitalization in healthcare: The digital rescue chain improves the care of emergency victims.

Saving valuable time and thus saving lives – this was the goal supported by the Thuringian Digital Agency (DAT) within the framework of the Thuringian pilot project for the Digital Rescue Chain. The former pilot project is currently being expanded throughout Thuringia to include ground-based emergency medical services. The digital pre-registration of emergency patients in the emergency rooms of Thuringian hospitals is also being expanded. The aim: to optimize the exchange of information between all parties involved – emergency dispatch center, emergency medical personnel, hospital – and thus provide the best possible care for those affected.

Faster, more secure data exchange in emergencies

When an accident results in serious injuries, or when people are in life-threatening danger due to a heart attack or stroke, every second counts. Many people are involved in the rescue operation: in addition to emergency medical personnel, numerous staff members from the emergency dispatch center and hospitals are also involved. This places high demands on seamless collaboration. It is crucial to gather critical data as quickly as possible, such as the patients' condition or the requirements for the emergency room to provide the best possible treatment for the acute illness. This data must then be shared in a way that allows all involved parties to access it quickly and easily and act accordingly. Digital applications make it possible to meet this challenge.

Saving lives through digitization and digital tools

Enable emergency services to act quickly
To ensure the smooth cooperation of all helpers
Letting data flow intelligently
Simplify administrative burden for everyone

"Digitalization saves lives"

Heiko Kahl, Managing Director of the Digital Agency Thuringia

"Digitalization supports processes in a wide variety of life situations, but rarely can it provide such valuable services as in the establishment of the digital rescue chain. Modern technology helps very concretely here to accelerate the emergency treatment of patients, to optimize the communication and cooperation of all medical helpers, and to collect, transmit, document and evaluate all necessary data for acute and further treatment."

Steps towards digitizing the emergency room

1

Digital Agency Thuringia (DAT) shapes the cooperation of many stakeholders, including the state government with its health and interior ministries, the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians of Thuringia, as well as the municipalities and districts.

2

The DIVIDOK project enables the collection of operational data using a standardized, nationwide data collection system via ePen or tablet. This allows emergency medical personnel to provide early preliminary information to the receiving hospital.

3

The MEDIRett project aims to accelerate data flow and ensure seamless data documentation. This allows emergency rescue operations and patient transports to be documented electronically.

4

Complex digital tools for the statistical processing of data make it possible to follow up on a wide variety of operations and thus to continuously evaluate and improve the digitization of the rescue chain.

The result is digital cooperation in the patient's interest.

Within the framework of the pilot project, it was possible to bring together a wide variety of stakeholders in a short time through cooperation projects and thus develop complex solutions to problems.

The results covered many areas: data documentation, information transfer, digital networking between pre-clinical and clinical care facilities, and statistical follow-up for the evaluation of digitally based processes with the aim of continuously optimizing the digital rescue chain.

The implementation of initial process solutions has resulted in increased security of supply and optimization of individual links in the complex rescue chain.