Lower Saxony: Joining forces for a uniform nationwide digitalization strategy
20.04.2023 15:16
Joining forces for a uniform nationwide digitalization strategy In recent years, the Covid-19 pandemic has made the challenges in the public health service (ÖGD) increasingly visible. For a sustainable ÖGD, modernization on a larger scale is required. In recent months, Lower Saxony has developed a stable foundation - a groundbreaking digitalization concept - in collaboration with the municipal umbrella associations and the health authorities.
The state has a total of 65 million euros available from the federal government for digitalization measures of the ÖGD alone. The digitalization concept developed will support the ÖGD in Lower Saxony in the implementation of this funding program and point the way to the further digital future of the public health service. Since the first nationwide call for funding in April 2022, twelve state measures and 41 model projects have already been implemented in Lower Saxony with the fully approved funding amount of around 44.6 million euros.
The twelve state measures include four so-called ELFA measures led by Lower Saxony. 'One-country-for-all measures' aim to centrally develop a digital service, which will then be made available to all other participating federal states. In addition, Lower Saxony is participating in four other ELFA measures from other federal states, making it one of the states with the most applied for and approved measures nationwide.
Minister of Health Dr. Andreas Philippi emphasizes: “The further development of the digitalization of the public health service in Lower Saxony is an ambitious project that requires the solidarity of all those involved. I am all the more pleased that all those involved have undertaken this feat of strength within a very short space of time and have already achieved considerable results. This shows the intensive transformation phase of the ÖGD and I would like to express my thanks for everyone’s committed commitment.”
For the Lower Saxony Association of Cities, the General Manager welcomes, Dr. Jan Arning, the jointly presented project: “The health authorities in Lower Saxony are increasingly committed to further optimizing and modernizing the processes involved in completing tasks as far as possible through digitalization. This takes place at the same time as everyday business and therefore requires enormous effort from staff in the public health service, but also in the cross-sectional areas - especially at times when the ÖGD is already under considerable strain. For this reason, the support of the state and financing that meets needs are particularly important for this project.”
“Sufficiently qualified staff in Lower Saxony’s health authorities is the key to success, and reliable and adequate financing is therefore essential,” says Prof. Dr. Hubert Meyer, General Manager of the Lower Saxony District Council. “On this basis, we can bring together and advance the decentralized projects for common standards in digital data exchange with the state office. Together with the innovative project applications from the health authorities, we are getting better together: Clear digital reporting channels, uniform exchange formats and compatible specialist applications will noticeably accelerate the healthcare system in Lower Saxony for citizens,” summarizes Meyer.
Lower Saxony clearly exceeds agreed targets for staff growth
By December 2021, 235 permanent positions instead of the specified 144 had already been created and filled. The results of the survey on staff expansion by December 2022 confirmed this success in staff expansion and once again significantly exceeded the agreed target of 245 permanent full-time positions by creating and filling around 396 positions. In total, Lower Saxony will have around 300 million euros available from the pact to increase staff in the ÖGD by 2026.
With funds from the pact for the ÖGD, Lower Saxony is already implementing various investment measures to digitize the ÖGD. Some practical examples are described below:
Office for the digitization of the ÖGD in Lower Saxony
The state of Lower Saxony has set up an office for reliable digitalization management to further develop the digitalization of the ÖGD. This takes over the central coordination of the current and future implementation projects from the pact for the ÖGD. Already established exchange and development formats in the ÖGD in Lower Saxony will be maintained and expanded.
Development of a training concept for the digitalization of the Lower Saxony health authorities
With the development of a training concept, the Lower Saxony ÖGD facilities are offered an orientation framework for health department-specific and needs-oriented training on relevant IT skills. The aim is to develop recommendations for training content for digitalization topics in the Lower Saxony health authorities and thereby achieve a uniform level of competence as part of the qualification of employees in the individual facilities.
IT infrastructure for external crisis communication bots for improved services for citizens
An IT infrastructure will be set up for the use of voice and chatbots based on artificial intelligence (AI). It can be used across different topics. In this way, the service performance for telephone and written inquiries from citizens is improved, especially in crisis situations, for general accessibility, shorter waiting times and consistent information as well as the ability to evaluate the inquiry process. The ÖGD facilities should be significantly relieved when answering inquiries. The structure is available to both state and local authorities and can be uniformly configured and trained.
Cloud service for exchanging personal data in healthcare
By providing a nationwide, uniform and user-friendly cloud service, the ÖGD facilities are networked with each other and with other facilities and collaboration is promoted. In the ÖGD facilities, as many employees as possible will have access to the service and be able to use it, so that transmitted data can be accessed immediately, even in crisis situations.
Dashboard to display epidemiological indicators at the state and local level
A dashboard with various elements for visualizing health indicators will be created, which, in addition to the SARS-CoV-2 reporting numbers/incidences, also shows the reporting numbers of other infectious diseases that are reportable in accordance with the IfSG for Lower Saxony. In addition, the dashboard will make it possible to display additional indicators over a spatial-temporal course, such as vaccination rates for the various vaccine-preventable pathogens or indicators from syndromic and sentinel-based surveillance systems as well as mortality surveillance.
Lower Saxony platform for reporting and data transmission including database in a business intelligence system
The system focuses on use cases in which data is collected outside the health authorities in health, care and children's community facilities and forwarded to the health authorities and subsequently or in parallel, if necessary, to the state authorities, in particular the Lower Saxony State Health Office. The development of a generic system ensures that those involved do not have to use their own platform for every use case. The system is open and configurable for various applications by the Lower Saxony State Health Office and the Lower Saxony health authorities.
Background:
In 2020, the federal and state governments jointly decided on the “Pact for the Public Health Service” with the aim of strengthening and modernizing the public health service in all its diversity of tasks and at all levels. With the pact for the ÖGD, the federal government is making a total of 4 billion euros available to the federal states by 2026 for structural, personnel and digital realignment. Of this, around 3.1 billion euros go to staff expansion measures and around 800 million euros to the digitalization of the ÖGD.
Five development priorities have been identified as strategic pillars for the coming years. The first three strategic pillars are aimed at increasing public health services appropriate to the target group towards citizens, employees in the health authorities and external actors.
Pillars four and five describe the cross-sectional activities required for this: the IT framework as well as coordination and cooperation in the ÖGD in Lower Saxony.
Further information at: https://www.bundesgesundheitsministerium.de/service/begriffe-von-a-z/o/oeffentlicher-gesundheitsheitsdienst-pakt.html