Last week the DACH healthcare IT ecosystem – and more of the European one than ever before – met in Berlin at DMEA 23 for what was the biggest, busiest and, for all that matters, most optimistic and excited show ever, even back from the good ole conhIT days.

In football they say “money doesn’t score goals”… and we may debate long and wide about the flaws, lack of overarching strategy or focus on legacy technology which comes with KHZG. But here we are and money actually does move things forward. In Berlin you could see an industry smiling after long and dire years of little progress. I even saw “Becker-fists”, a first at DMEA as far as I can remember.

There is value in progress, even – or shall we say especially – when it is playing catch-up. German healthcare and the HIT industry are energized to proof it. These will be exciting years to come. And for once, the biggest challenge will be resources. What a high class problem!

When I walked the halls and heard about all the important concepts being devised, milestone projects initiated, paper eliminated, I had to think back at some of our lessons learned from the old National Program for IT times. There is a set of 10 rules, that used to help us stay focussed, maintain the energy in tiring times and accept some of the difficulties as what they were: unavoidable but real-life challenges to overcome and not insurmountable obstacles.

For whatever it’s worth, here is a reminder of the 10 rules, that help transformatory and strategic projects in healthcare IT stay the course:

1.     KEEP IN MIND: IT’S ABOUT IMPROVING HEALTHCARE

2.     DELIVER VALUE EARLY!

         Early benefits drive momentum, commitment and ambition

3.     IT’S ALWAYS DYNAMIC IN HEALTHCARE
         Regulation, policy, medical science and practice change constantly, it’s real life

4.     DON’T COMPROMISE ON STANDARDS
         Interoperability, integration and semantics are vital! 
         Don’t re-invent what’s already there, enforce it!

5.     IMPROVE AND RE-ENGINEER YOUR WORKFLOW
         Digitalising bad processes creates expensive bad processes

6.     MAKE LOCAL USERS OWN IT
         And build capacity and talent

7.     COMMUNICATION, COMMUNICATION, COMMUNICATION
         Important messages get easily lost in translation

8.     OVER-INVEST IN INFRASTRUCTURE
         You’ll never run out of ideas what to do next

9.     BUILD YOUR ECOSYSTEM
         Complexity is teamwork and dependability is gaining you the future

10.  NEVER LET PERFECT GET IN THE WAY OF GOOD
        Excellence thrives well without perfection!