Knowledge squared

As one of the founders and managing directors of VISUS Health IT GmbH, the last few months of the merger with CompuGroup Medical have been a truly exciting time for me. Every decision that I have taken together with Jörg Holstein and Guido Bötticher have set our course. The course for the future of VISUS and its partners, for our employees, and of course for the users of our products.

And now? I am having a blast, once again completely rethinking medical IT processes. Discovering other approaches, expanding my outlook. An important reason for this step toward Koblenz was taking this opportunity to shift perspectives. Suddenly, we are becoming familiar not only with the work practices in radiology clinics and hospitals but, through colleagues in CGM, we are also discovering work practices in the most diverse medical practices, pharmacies, and health insurance providers. We are also gaining a far more detailed view of the way patients handle their medical data. This gives us access to process environments that had been sealed off to us previously. Knowing how medical data are processed in this sector, we can modify products with a view to ensuring that treatment information is more readily available along the entire care chain.

And it is not just this expertise that benefits us at VISUS. We are also learning a great deal about how our IT infrastructure functions both technically and organizationally as components that are centrally and deeply embedded in healthcare systems. The central infrastructure, for example, that is required to transport data securely, reliably, and quickly from A to B. Or central authentication mechanisms provided by healthcare systems that will at some point enable access to data in healthcare systems completely independent of location.

All in all, this additional expertise that we can now access ensures finalization of our interoperable network concept that is aligned with international standards. And this has become a requirement in healthcare, not a matter of goodwill. Networking, as I understand it, covers not only the infrastructure and knowing which access points and with which interfaces what type of information is transferred, processed, and displayed. The art lies in implementing simple, recoverable solutions and solution components that are readily accessible for users and administrators. We can now allow ourselves to become more deeply immersed in this way of thinking because we have new access to this world of knowledge. And our contribution to making medical information available where it is needed will become more and more significant.