Data Sovereignty in Healthcare Sector: DMI Data Centres Certified

Ijad Isa, Head of IT and CIO at DMI, provides insights into the company's work, which has specialised in the digitalisation and long-term archiving of patient documentation in the healthcare sector for over 50 years.DMI's focuses on data-sovereign healthcare, ensuring the protection and availability of sensitive patient data through the use of cutting-edge technologies and strict compliance guidelines.

In addition to ensuring data-sovereign healthcare, DMI places great importance on certified processes, such as the BSI-03138 (TR-RESISCAN) certification, which ensures the security and availability of data.In this interview, Isa explains how the successful (re)certification of its data centres strengthens customer confidence in the quality of its services.

Mr Isa, what does DMI do and who are your customers?
For more than 50 years, DMI has been a specialist in the healthcare sector, covering the entire need relating to the availability, archiving and long-term storage of patient documentation. Approximately every second patient record in Germany is digitalised by us, consolidated with electronically created documents, provided with additional information and archived in an audit-proof manner. Our customers include hospitals, sponsoring organisations and healthcare groups. They hire us for order data processing while adhering to strict compliance guidelines.

What do you mean by "data sovereign healthcare" and how does this contribute to improving patient care and protecting sensitive healthcare data?

Within and outside of the Hospital Future Act (KHZG) and depending on their corporate strategy, hospitals need to implement their digitalisation strategy. DMI supports them in this, so they can focus on their core business of healthcare provision.

We ensure the integrity and interoperability of the data and enable semantic analyses for clinical, administrative and research-oriented purposes, among other things. We adopt data structures created in hospitals through our gematik-certified interfaces for information technology systems in hospitals (ISiK).

By being able to provide hospitals with these documents and data securely at any time and in large quantities, we create the backbone - or better: the platform - for data sovereignty in internal hospital processes through the fulfilment of legality, cost-effectiveness and interoperability.

How do you ensure the security and availability of patient data during digitalisation and long-term archiving?
Our tried-and-tested digitalisation processes, certified in accordance with BSI-03138 (TR-RESISCAN), secure the creation process of the digitalised information right through to the electronic long-term archive. Our offline archive ensures that all data is available for the long term and for the duration of the retention periods. In addition, we also record original electronic data and can make the consolidated file available online, in the cloud. To underscore this, we are in the process of being certified as a trust service provider.

What specific benefits does the successful (re)certification of the data centre bring for you and your customers?
Our own data centres, which we operate in Germany, are an important and elementary functional building block for our services and solutions. Thanks to an independent audit, we and our customers can be sure that we are optimally positioned both technically and organisationally. Technologies can change - the responsibility for the data and processes entrusted to us remains the same.

What technical measures have been taken to fulfil the audit requirements?

We have structured and continuously improved and expanded our technical systems and general operational capability in recent years. Necessary measures to meet changing utilisation requirements and new regulatory requirements have been consistently implemented.

What role do sustainability and energy efficiency play for DMI?
We can only do justice to the continuous change and the resulting structural requirements if we dedicate ourselves to the topics of sustainability and energy efficiency. It is a logical and consistent continuation of our services. Our acceptance of ecological, economic and social responsibility serves our customers, their employees and patients.

Thank you very much, Mr Isa!

Picture: © DMI,

Ijad Isa (Head of IT), Mr Broch, Niklas Wischer (Head of Data Centre Operations), Christoph Schmelter (Managing Director DMI) at the certificate presentation in Münster

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