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This Month in Healthcare IT: Remarkable News in March
As a life-saving industry, healthcare IT touches almost everyone’s life and supports both physical and psychological health. To improve the quality of healthcare delivery and patient safety, this comprehensive sector continues to evolve through regulatory changes, technological advancements and strategic industry collaborations.
At Tiga Healthcare Technologies, we recognize the cruciality of following current healthcare IT trends to improve healthcare systems. With this approach, we share key updates, game-changing innovations and emerging trends in the industry through this blog series. This month’s edition mainly involves forward-looking partnerships, health data-related regulations, artificial intelligence (AI) and so on.
Here are the top 12 news which fueled the remarkable evolution of healthcare IT from March 2025:
1. The European Commission (EC) proposed the European Health Data Space (EHDS) Regulation to set a common framework for the use and exchange of electronic health data across the European Union (EU).
The EHDS Regulation, which is officially published on 5 March, is expected to facilitate the use and reuse of health data for individual purposes, research, innovation, regulatory efforts and workload of health professionals.
According to the EC, the EHDS aims to enhance patient access and control over their electronic health data, enable secondary use for research and policy-making and foster a single market for electronic health record (EHR) systems while ensuring strong privacy and security measures. It entered into force on 26 March, progressively integrating health data interoperability, expanding digital health services and accelerating medical research.
2. The World Health Organization (WHO) published a report, ‘A Global Review of Value-Based Care: Theory, Practice and Lessons Learned,’ highlighting the role of information systems in supporting value-based care (VBC).
The WHO report elaborates on the role of information systems in VBC by emphasizing interoperability, secure data exchange and standardized health data across relevant stakeholders.
According to the report, data and information technology is very important for the implementation of VBC. To develop a holistic understanding of patients’ health and care, the WHO recommends high interoperability, standardized language and patient-centric approach for health informatics systems; a value-based IT system should be centrally accessible, data privacy-focused and compliant with standardized data definitions, ensuring efficient communication and better patient outcomes.
Source: https://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/380713/9789290220121-eng.pdf?sequence=1
3. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) launched a new dashboard on its Regional Data Portal for the elimination of communicable diseases.
The PAHO launched a dashboard within the Regional Data Portal of the Elimination Initiative (EI). This tool strengthens monitoring capabilities with key information from 29 indicators.
The dashboard focuses on improving health systems, information systems, health surveillance, governance and finance along with addressing the environmental and social determinants of health. It aims to provide up-to-date, country-specific information to guide decision-making which will accelerate the elimination of more than 30 diseases. The PAHO also stresses the significance of cautious interpretation of the data due to variations in quality and availability across countries.
4. The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) partnered with the Ministry of Health of Türkiye to leverage digital health transformation.
On 4 March, the HIMSS and Turkish Ministry of Health signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at the 2025 HIMSS Global Health Conference and Exhibition to advance digital health transformation.
This strategic collaboration focuses on deploying HIMSS Maturity Models to support healthcare providers in reaching the digital transformation goals of Türkiye. Additionally, the Ministry of Health will organize various initiatives like regional workshops and training sessions to consolidate HIMSS Maturity Models’ supportive approach for patients and health staff and the benefits of digital maturity. The 2025-2027 execution ensures a structured approach to digital transformation in Türkiye’s healthcare system.
5. The National Health Service (NHS) South East London Integrated Care Board (ICB) launched an AI Framework to use AI tools effectively, safely and ethically.
The new AI Framework, which was released in collaboration with OneLondon, the AI Centre for Value Based Healthcare and NHS partners on 3 March, involves the agreed way of introducing, using and monitoring AI-powered products across the NHS in South East London.
The framework standardizes AI implementation, monitoring and best practices to improve patient care and healthcare systems efficiently. It focuses on five key areas which are partnership and governance, infrastructure and data, AI use cases, AI delivery approach and communication, engagement and training. By aiming to reduce wait times, streamline administrative tasks and enhance diagnosis, it underscores the importance of collaboration, responsible deployment and interoperability.
6. The WHO selected the Digital Ethics Centre at Delft University of Technology as a Collaborating Centre on AI to advance ethical and responsible AI use in healthcare.
The WHO designated the Digital Ethics Centre at Delft University of Technology as a Collaborating Centre on AI for health governance. As the agency highlights AI’s ability to reshape healthcare delivery and save lives, this is an effective move to utilize the technology’s full potential.
The Centre will support policy-making, research and training, ensuring AI-driven health innovations align with ethical and safety standards. The collaboration between the WHO and Delf University of Technology reinforces the WHO’s commitment to evidence-based AI governance, promoting trust, transparency and equitable access to AI in the healthcare industry.
7. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released a report which focuses on the impact of the overall design of health systems on performance.
The ‘How Do Health System Features Influence Health System Performance?’ report analyzes how different health system features such as financing, governance and primary care influence performance and efficiency across OECD countries.
The report highlights the use of EHRs as a key component in improving healthcare efficiency. It states that EHR systems support multiple functions like appointment scheduling, consultation records, ordering laboratory tests, issuing drug prescriptions and sending them to pharmacies, sending referral letters to medical specialists, receiving alerts about potential problems with drug dose or drug interaction and storing diagnostic test results. These functions streamline primary care physicians’ workflows and give them quick access to data which facilitates clinical decisions.
8. The United Kingdom (UK) government responded to the Regulatory Horizons Council’s report on AI as a Medical Device (AIaMD).
The response from the government outlines efforts to modernize AI regulations including AI Airlock regulatory sandbox, enhanced post-market monitoring and risk mitigation frameworks.
According to the response, AI has a great potential to transform the health and care sector and the adoption of AI in health is critical to raise living standards across the UK. The response expresses that the government works to ensure that the UK medical device regulations are proper for the protection of patients and public health while supporting innovation. Specifically, the efforts of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) are mentioned. The government supports a light-touch and innovation-friendly regulatory approach, balancing safety, accountability and accelerated AI adoption in healthcare.
9. The HIMSS’ survey on healthcare cybersecurity shows that many healthcare organizations will invest in cybersecurity more.
The 2024 HIMSS Healthcare Cybersecurity Survey was conducted with 273 healthcare cybersecurity professionals involving executive managers, non-executive managers and non-managers.
According to the survey’s results, 55% of respondents plan to increase their cybersecurity budgets for 2025. A majority of respondents (57%) mentioned significant improvements ot the tools they use while 47% of them reported significant improvements to policies. Moreover, 31% of them stated significant imporvements to staff. This survey consolidates the importance of investments in healthcare cybersecurity to increase patient care safety.
Source: https://cdn.sanity.io/files/sqo8bpt9/production/4f1c1968050411b8bf9335a187301881f9153b9f.pdf
10. The Korean Ministry of Health (MOHW) and Welfare and the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) gathered under the theme ‘Ensuring Health for All for a Sustainable Future.’
“Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) 2025 Korea” First Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM1) Health Working Group (HWG) meeting was held from 4 March to 6 March in Gyeongju. The meeting brought together delegations from 18 APEC member economies to discuss key topics such as pandemic preparedness, digital health and universal health coverage.
The meeting’s discussions focused on the importance of innovation in research and development (R&D), pandemic surveillance using AI and big data, the role of digital technologies in improving healthcare accessibility and efficiency, chronic disease management and strengthening supply chains. The discussions mainly aimed to foster cooperation on public health crises, digital health and sustainable health financing in the Asia-Pacific region.
Source: https://www.mohw.go.kr/board.es?mid=a20401000000&bid=0032&act=view&list_no=1484872&tag=&nPage=1
11. Stanford University’s Center for Digital Health released a report, ‘Generative AI for Health in Low- & Middle-Income Countries,’ focusing on the use of generative AI (GenAI) in driving health-related behavior change (HBC).
This report, which emphasizes the transformative potential of GenAI in improving healthcare delivery, was prepared through in-depth interviews and a quantitative survey with people who are actively working on the applications of GenAI in healthcare.
According to the report, GenAI, particularly large language models (LLMs), advances healthcare outcomes by giving personalized health recommendations and automating administrative tasks of health professionals. Additionally, the survey results show that 50% of respondents prioritize health education and awareness as the main application for GenAI, followed by 44% for clinical decision support and 43% for health behavior change. On the other hand, the report expresses the importance of local infrastructure and user-centered design to maximize GenAI’s impact in the sector.
12. The Government of Hong Kong announced the Electronic Health Record Sharing System (Amendment) Bill 2025, expanding data collection, sharing, usage and protection.
The Electronic Health Record Sharing System (Amendment) Bill 2025 was gazetted on March 21. This bill aims to improve the existing legal framework of the Electronic Health Record Sharing System (eHealth).
The bill includes provisions for creating comprehensive personal electronic health records, streamlining consent processes and empowering healthcare providers to deposit health data into citizens' eHealth accounts. Furthermore, it supports primary healthcare development by expanding access to health data for more health professionals and facilitating cross-boundary healthcare services with enhanced data security.
Source: https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202503/19/P2025031900179.htm
These advancements consolidate the cruciality of data, information systems and emerging technologies like AI in healthcare delivery and management across the globe. With our innovative health information technologies, we demonstrate the importance of digital health transformation.
As the EHDS aims to increase patient access and control over their electronic health data, our Personal Health Record (PHR) comes to the forefront. This system provides patients with 24/7 access to their electronic health records, allowing for personal control and easy sharing of real-time health data with healthcare providers.
In addition to the usage of EHRs, other key points are interoperability, standardization and patient-centered approach, which are emphasized in the WHO’s report on VBC. By aligning with this perspective, we offer patient-centric products which ensure effective communication between relevant stakeholders via standardization and high interoperability. For example, our HIE Viewer interoperates with other systems such as the PHR and Hospital Information System (HIS) for uninterrupted data exchange. On the other hand, our Terminology Server creates structures in National and International Clinical Terminology standards to ensure that all health records are managed with accurate coding.
Another trend is the rise of AI in healthcare, which is highlighted by the WHO, UK government and NHS South East London ICB. Our AI & Analytics product family, involving ShareMind, Predis and Autononym, is also in line with this trend. These technologies utilize AI for enabling healthcare providers to make informed decisions and improving patient outcomes.
Our life-saving health information technologies are designed to revolutionize the sector by empowering patient involvement, enhancing clinician productivity and fostering seamless collaboration among relevant stakeholders. Our products and solutions comprise Healthcare Interoperability, Patient Engagement, Prescription & Medicine Management, Drug Traceability, AI & Analytics, Population Health Management, Personalized Healthcare and Hospital Information System.
Let’s shape the future together by digitalizing healthcare, as always!
