AI in Healthcare: SAP and Fresenius Accelerate Digital Healthcare Delivery

SAP and Fresenius announced that both companies intend to enter a strategic partnership to accelerate innovation for stronger digital healthcare delivery.

Together, the companies plan to create the digital backbone for a sovereign, interoperable and AI-supported healthcare system. The solutions will combine the expertise of Fresenius, one of the world’s largest healthcare companies, with future-oriented SAP technologies and meet high requirements for data sovereignty, security and regulatory compliance. The plan is to provide an open, integrated and data‑driven digital health ecosystem that enables hospitals and medical facilities worldwide to use AI securely and to handle health data responsibly.

SAP and Fresenius plan to jointly build an individual, scalable healthcare platform that enables connected, data-driven healthcare processes. Based on this, the companies will develop joint, future-oriented and AI-supported healthcare solutions to sustainably increase quality, transparency and efficiency across the entire care chain and set new standards for digital innovation in the healthcare sector. The foundation will be proven SAP technologies and products such as SAP Business Suite, SAP Business Data Cloud (SAP BDC), SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) and SAP Business AI. These core elements help create a unified, compliant, open and expandable base for the more-secure exchange and use of data as well as for operating AI models in a controlled environment.

Together, the companies also plan to build a sovereign, European solution for an integrated healthcare ecosystem that supports the integration of modern hospital information systems (HIS) based on SAP’s “AnyEMR” strategy. Interfaces based on open industry standards such as HL7 FHIR will enable the more-seamless connection of HIS, electronic medical records (EMRs) and other medical applications.

“With SAP’s leading technology and Fresenius’ deep healthcare expertise, we aim to create a sovereign, interoperable healthcare platform for Fresenius worldwide. Together, we want to set new standards for data sovereignty, security and innovation in healthcare. Thanks to SAP, Fresenius can harness the full potential of digital and AI-supported processes and sustainably improve patient care,” says Christian Klein, CEO and Member of the Executive Board of SAP SE.

“Together with SAP, we can accelerate the digital transformation of the German and European healthcare systems and enable a sovereign European solution that is so important in today’s global landscape. We are making data and AI everyday companions that are secure, simple and scalable for doctors and hospital teams. This creates more room for what truly matters: caring for patients,” adds Michael Sen, CEO of Fresenius.

As part of the joint transformation project, both companies plan to invest a mid three-digit million euro amount in the medium term to consistently drive the digital transformation of the German and European healthcare system through the use of digital and AI-supported solutions.

The partnership is implemented through various forms of collaboration. These include joint investments in startups and scaleups, joint technological developments and close cooperation within coordinated governance structures between the two companies.

Source: SAP and Fresenius media announcement