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This Month in Healthcare IT: Remarkable News in April
Staying abreast of the latest trends, regulations and developments is cruical to achieve digital health transformation and develop effective digital health technologies. Efficient innovation and strategic planning require a constant understanding of the evolution of different technologies and how policies are shaping their implementation worldwide.
To help you navigate the healthcare IT landscape, we meticulously compile key developments from the global ecosystem. Through this blog series, we aim to keep healthcare professionals, providers and authorities informed so they can strengthen their decision-making processes. In this month’s edition, we present a curated selection of pivotal updates and trends from the past weeks.
Here are the top 11 news which fueled the remarkable evolution of healthcare IT from March 2025:
1. The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe announced a new center on digital health in Germany.
The WHO/Europe introduced the European Campus Rottal-Inn (DIT-ECRI) at the Deggendorf Institute of Technology in Germany as a collaborating center on digital health.
With policy and strategy development, training and capacity-building and research and evaluation of digital health interventions, the DIT-ECRI will support the WHO in improving digital health systems. Under the 4-year collaboration, the center will provide data analyses on existing digital health policies and ethics frameworks, identify potential gaps and offer evidence-based recommendations for policy enhancements.
2. The United Kingdom (UK) launched a training on digital health tools for care leaders.
The Health and Social Care Secretary, Wes Streeting, announced the launch of new training on digital health technologies. This training aims to drive adoption of digital tools in social care and address the need for digital skills among carers.
This training program will equip care leaders with skills to use and quickly implement technology across care homes and other relevant locations. The program includes fall detection sensor, video telecare and artificial intelligence (AI). The training will help people to live independently in their homes and enhance care quality.
Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/cutting-edge-tech-introduced-in-social-care
3. The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) and Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI) signed an agreement for digital health transformation in Korea.
The HIMSS and KHIDI signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to embody Korea’s commitment to creating a digitally advanced healthcare ecosystem.
Under the partnership, the HIMSS Digital Health Indicator (DHI) will be implemented as Korea’s Medical Digital Maturity Assessment Model. It aims to extend digital maturity assessments from large hospitals to small and mid-sized ones, improving healthcare innovation across the country. Also, a digital maturity assessment framework for Korea’s healthcare system will be established.
4. The UK plans to create a new health data research service to improve patient care and medical research.
The government and Wellcome Trust will invest £600 million for the creation of a new health data research service. This initiative aims to accelerate the discovery of life-saving drugs, improve patient care and transform the UK into a global leader in medical research.
This service will simplify access to National Health Service (NHS) data for researchers, cutting bureaucratic barriers and speeding up clinical trials. Within the initiative, strong security measures will protect patients’ health data effectively.
Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/prime-minister-turbocharges-medical-research
5. The WHO/Europe released a policy brief, ‘Scaling Up Mental Health Services within the PHC Approach: Lessons from the WHO European Region,’ emphasizing the investment in health information systems.
The WHO Regional Office for Europe’s policy paper presents a strategic framework to scale up mental health services within primary care and align them with the primary health care approach.
According to the paper, investing in health information systems and digital health technologies is essential to improve primary care, particularly for mental health services. The agency highlights that these systems provide the seamless exchange of patient data among healthcare providers, enabling care coordination. In the paper, it is stated that countries like Finland and Kazakhstan demonstrate the benefits of electronic health records (EHRs) and integrated systems for managing mental health data.
Source: https://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/381029/WHO-EURO-2025-11303-51075-77740-eng.pdf
6. The PwC published a new paper which outlines the potential of generative AI (GenAI) in reshaping Saudi Arabia’s healthcare sector.
The paper, ‘Navigating New Frontiers in Health: A Strategic Guide to GenAI in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,’ discusses how GenAI can drive improvements across various healthcare domains like precision medicine, population health management, diagnostics, drug research and development and chronic care management.
According to the PwC, there is a great alignment between GenAI and Saudi Vision 2030, aiming to modernize healthcare through AI-driven solutions, improve accessibility and address workforce challenges. The paper highlights that the technology can streamline healthcare processes, enhance care quality and foster a more personalized healthcare experience for patients across the Kingdom.
Source: https://www.pwc.com/m1/en/publications/2025/docs/navigating-new-frontiers-in-health.pdf
7. New Zealand awarded a contract for the development of the upcoming Shared Digital Health Record System (SDHR).
The Whatu Ora Health New Zealand awarded a contract for the SDHR’s interoperability.
The system, which is expected to go into action in the middle of the year, aims to improve nationwide access to patient information by implementing FHIR standards for data exchange. The SDHR will consolidate clinical data, offering a consistent view of patient records. It will enable better interoperability and access to health records across the country.
8. The Hunter New England and Central Coast Primary Health Network (HNECC PHN) launched an AI-powered initiative to automate documentation.
The HNECC PHN announced the launch of the AI-Enabled General Practice Initiative, aiming to reduce clinicians’ administrative burdens and improve primary care delivery.
The first phase of the initiative, called the Ambient Scribe Pilot, will test ambient scribing technology to evaluate its effect on workload, patient experience and service delivery. This project is expected to set new standards in practice management and patient care, with the goal of creating a scalable AI framework for widespread adoption in healthcare.
9. The New Zealand government published its Health Infrastructure Plan which is the first national plan for long-term health infrastructure priorities.
The plan outlines the country’s investment plan for physical infrastructure in healthcare. Additionally, the government is preparing an investment plan for digital infrastructure in healthcare.
The plan states an approach focusing on the increasing demands on healthcare services due to a growing, aging and more diverse population. It highlights the challenges of maintaining aging infrastructure, the need for more resilient buildings and the importance of digital health and virtual care models. According to the plan, the government will modernize and expand health facilities, ensuring they can handle future healthcare needs.
Source: https://www.tewhatuora.govt.nz/publications/health-infrastructure-plan
10. Rwanda launched the Health Intelligence Center (HIC) for better decision-making and health policy development processes.
Rwanda launched a strategic national platform called Health Intelligence Center (HIC) to collect, process and analyze real-time health data across the country.
The center in Kigali aims to enhance evidence-based decision-making and policy development by integrating data from various domains such as disease prevention, emergency response, supply chain and health financing and workforce. The HIC operates through six-layer digital architecture for end-to-end data flow to enable early warning systems for outbreaks, streamline resource allocation and reduce patient wait times.
11. Kenya announced new digital health regulations to transform the healthcare landscape in the country digitally.
Kenya focuses on digital health transformation through new regulations to improve healthcare accessibility, efficiency, affordability and quality.
The country demonstrated proposed regulations aiming to establish a comprehensive framework for digital health services. These regulations concentrate on patient registration, health record tracking, data exchange and health information management. The regulations will facilitate the establishment of an integrated health information system.
Sources: https://www.health.go.ke/index.php/health-cs-hon-aden-duale-briefs-senate-committee-digital-health-regulations & https://www.health.go.ke/index.php/kenya-takes-major-step-towards-digital-health-transformation-new-regulations
These developments from different countries like the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Kenya, Rwanda and Australia show that digital health transformation is adopted globally without slowing down. By believing that the transformation will improve health service delivery and accessibility efficiently, we strengthen national health systems with our health information technologies.
As New Zealand and Rwanda focus on the analysis and sharing of health data, we offer our Health Information Exchange (HIE) Suite for seamless health data exchange. This product family, which comprises the FHIR Stack, Enterprise Master Patient Index (EMPI), Terminology Server and Clinical Viewer 360, guarantees interoperability between healthcare systems. Our FHIR Stack manages the secure sharing of health data in accordance with the FHIR protocol while the EMPI unifies identity and reference data from various systems and sources. On the other hand, our Terminology Server enables the creation and management of terminology contents compatible with standards like ICD 10-11, SNOMED CT, LOINC and RxNorm while the Clinical Viewer 360 allows healthcare professionals to access and view patients’ EHRs. In addition to these systems, our Personal Health Record (PHR) from the Patient Engagement family is the reflection of patient participation. As an electronic health record system, it allows personal control and easy sharing of real-time health data with both private and public healthcare providers.
By bearing a resemblance to Rwanda's data analysis approach, our Health Analytics & Reporting System provides predefined and customizable data analytics and business intelligence capabilities. Healthcare authorities, managers and providers oversee operations, identify trends and risks and make informed decisions by using this advanced system. Furthermore, our AI-powered early warning system, Predis, supports these stakeholders in managing risks and resources by identifying irregularities and predicting future health risks. This system presents critical insights about regional epidemic risks, drug consumptions and prescription anomalies by analyzing our Pharmaceutical Track & Trace System’s data. Both the Health Analytics & Reporting and Predis support evidence-based decision-making and health policy development.
With the focus on health data analysis and exchange, the global ecosystem also concentrates on better medical research. This is embodied by the UK which plans to create a health data research service. At that point, ShareMind, our AI platform for health, comes into play; this platform allows researchers to analyze data using machine learning models without directly accessing sensitive healthcare data. It enables access to critical data like the information from different countries’ ministries of health while maintaining patient privacy and data security.
Our innovative health IT systems leverage the healthcare sector by holding to interoperability, drug safety, patient satisfaction, physician productivity and data privacy and security. Our products and solutions involve 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 with digital health transformation, as always!
