A modern user interface will complete i.s.h.med to achieve higher usability by introducing users to instinctive handling. In addition, an innovative information management system, dubbed “Ward,” will be established. “Ward” charts routine clinical situations to enhance efficiency by establishing a base from which the necessary follow-up actions in treatment will be automatically generated. Additionally, functions will be filtered in the electronic patient records to show only the relevant information pertaining to the specific patient situation. These innovations aim at speeding up patient diagnosis and treatment. First results have been available since December 2008.

The project “Clinical Pathways” is the starting-point of the development partnership between Siemens and Asklepios. Hospital staff knowledge and experience is applied to drawing up clinical treatment pathways and aims at transparent documentation of treatment sequences. It will enable examinations to be performed in a more focused manner and treatment processes to be compared more easily. This helps inexperienced staff to accustom themselves to hospital routine more rapidly and more confidently. All sectors can obtain information about the current progress of treatment at all times, which streamlines resource planning in the hospital.

Both partners are aiming to achieve their maximum potential using technological infrastructure through “open innovation.” Dr. Tobias Kaltenbach, chairman of the executive board, Asklepios Hospitals, states that, „With Siemens, Asklepios has gained a cooperation partner whose business strategy focuses on a similar goal: the development of communication and data transfer solutions to enhance the cost-effectiveness and quality of patient treatment in everyday hospital routine."