Life Sciences & Health Care 12.04.2026

6 min read

Digitalization in healthcare offers enormous potential but also presents hospitals with major challenges. Michael Heinlein and synaforce are at the forefront of this transformation, building bridges between people and technology, between different medical disciplines, and between today’s fragmented care and a more efficient, connected future.

Key takeaways

How hospitals are being transformed

In 2024, “Krankenhäuser transformiert” is a practical lever for organizations because the topic directly determines cyber-resilience, security operations, and regulatory obligations. The article shows, using synaforce as an example, which requirements, KPIs, and operational steps matter in practice.

As healthcare digitalization accelerates, hospitals face both challenges and opportunities. Michael Heinlein, an economist with more than 20 years of experience in the sector, specializes in guiding hospitals through their digital transformation. His role spans advising and accompanying hospitals on their digital journey, integrating administrative and clinical processes, and structuring solutions to drive standardization. By working at the intersection of data digitalization and its integration into hospital information systems, he focuses on process optimization with one constant goal: to place people at the center of technology and digital tools.

His work centers on process optimization and the implementation of digital technologies, always with an eye on uniting human and technological elements. Today, Heinlein sees the biggest challenge as deploying technology and digital tools so that people and systems work together more effectively and efficiently.

How digitalisation is transforming hospitals

Many hospitals, regardless of their size, still rely on outdated systems that fail to support modern workflows. Yet digitalisation offers enormous opportunities: it can, for example, help overcome rigid divisions between different care providers such as practices and clinics, enabling seamless, networked patient care.

Intelligently linking administrative and medical processes—such as the handling of patient data and its integration across multiple hospital information systems—can connect these systems in ways that unlock greater collective value.

Michael Heinlein and the team at synaforce support clinics in tackling these challenges. They take an external view of processes and provide expertise in areas that fall outside a hospital’s core competencies. This includes server operations, IT security, and the secure infrastructure required under KRITIS and NIS2 regulations. By taking on the IT focus, synaforce enables hospitals to concentrate on delivering high-quality care, while Michael Heinlein acts as a bridge-builder to improve communication between specialist disciplines and drive better outcomes.

“It’s not just about the technology itself, but about building communicative bridges between different specialist disciplines—helping teams collaborate more effectively and achieve better results.”
— Michael Heinlein on his core mission

Future care models and benefits for hospitals

Michael Heinlein envisions a future where hospitals and other healthcare facilities are even more tightly interconnected, implementing innovative care models. This also means staying ahead of evolving data-protection regulations and ensuring patient data can be securely and effectively shared among all stakeholders.

Partnering with synaforce delivers tangible benefits for clinics and their operators. Not only does it relieve the burden of managing IT tasks, it streamlines overall operations and lets teams focus more sharply on their core responsibilities. Proactive monitoring of IT infrastructure also enables predictive maintenance—especially vital in critical medical settings. Michael Heinlein and synaforce are therefore not just champions of healthcare digitalisation, but pioneers of a future where technology and human-centred care work in harmony to elevate patient outcomes to new heights.

KRITIS and NIS2: What hospitals need to know now

In Germany, hospitals treating more than 30,000 in-patients per year are classified as critical infrastructure (KRITIS) and must meet stringent IT-security requirements. From 2024, these obligations will be further tightened under the EU’s NIS2 Directive. Clinics must implement incident reporting, risk management, and supplier controls to defined standards, with ultimate responsibility resting with senior management—not delegable to the IT department.

For many smaller and mid-sized hospitals, this represents a significant challenge. Internal IT teams are often understaffed, and specialist knowledge in areas such as security operations, incident response, or audit documentation is rarely available in-house. A managed service provider like synaforce, operating IT security at KRITIS-grade levels, supplies the expertise that would be uneconomical to build internally. This shifts the role of in-house IT from operator to strategic orchestrator.

From hospital information systems to connected care

The transition from isolated hospital information systems (KIS) to truly connected care is technically and organizationally complex. Patient data must be accessible across institutional boundaries while strict data protection must be maintained. The electronic patient record (ePA), which becomes mandatory in 2025, is a central component—but not the only challenge.

Clinical workflows, laboratory systems, imaging, pharmacy, and billing often run on separate platforms with proprietary interfaces in many hospitals. Integration via standards like HL7 FHIR enables interoperability but requires investment and expert coordination. This is where consulting approaches like Michael Heinlein’s come into play, bridging technical integration with organizational change. Without this dual perspective, digitalization projects often stall halfway because either the technology lacks process alignment or the processes lack technical grounding.

Practical benefits of outsourced IT operations

Hospitals that outsource server operations to synaforce gain tangible practical advantages. First, their own IT teams can focus on hospital-specific tasks such as medical applications, workplace support, and KIS maintenance. Second, security and infrastructure requirements are met by a specialized team that continuously invests in certifications, monitoring, and training. Third, cost structures become more predictable as service-level agreements define clear frameworks and peak loads no longer lead to acute staffing shortages.

Fourth, the hospital benefits from experience gained in similar projects at other facilities. synaforce doesn’t just provide infrastructure—it brings industry best practices. For smaller hospitals without a dedicated Chief Information Security Officer, this represents a significant leap in competence. Fifth, compliance documentation for regulators like state data protection officers or the BSI can be based on the provider’s records, substantially reducing internal audit workload.

Digitalization lag in the German healthcare system

Germany ranks near the bottom in European comparisons of healthcare digitalization. Studies like the Bertelsmann Stiftung’s Digital Health Index have long shown countries like Estonia, Denmark, or Israel far ahead. The reasons are well-known: federal structures, a heterogeneous payer landscape, and distributed responsibilities among federal, state, and self-governing bodies. While the Hospital Future Act (KHZG) has released investment funds, operational implementation remains complex.

Hospitals face two pressures: on one side, patient expectations shaped by digital services in other areas of life; on the other, demands from regulators and payers for documentation quality, billing processes, and data exchange. Traditional procurement processes for individual modules often result in siloed solutions that cannot communicate later. A comprehensive strategy with clear platform decisions and managed-service partners is usually both economically and professionally superior.

Actionable recommendations for hospital management

First: establish a clear IT strategy with defined platform decisions. Hospitals that still allow each department to procure its own IT solutions only prolong integration efforts. Second: evaluate managed services where in-house expertise cannot be built cost-effectively—including security operations, 24/7 monitoring, and specialized infrastructure tasks. Third: embed compliance and documentation as cross-functional responsibilities at the executive level, not just within IT.

Fourth: engage external experts with industry experience, especially at the intersection of clinical processes and IT. Fifth: actively manage internal communication with physicians and nursing staff. Digitalization will fail if treated as a purely IT issue without involving the core medical users. The proven successes of the collaboration between Michael Heinlein and synaforce stem precisely from this dual perspective of expert consulting and technical operational leadership.

The economic framework of hospital IT

The economic situation of German hospitals is tense. Many facilities are struggling with deficits, staff shortages, and rising costs amid insufficient counter-financing. Against this backdrop, any major IT investment feels like a Herculean task. Yet efficient digital processes remain one of the few levers that can positively impact economic viability in the medium to long term.

Managed-service models offer a systematic economic advantage here: they convert high upfront investments into predictable operating costs that can be scaled according to demand during operations. Building your own highly available IT infrastructure for critical infrastructure protection (KRITIS) ties up millions in hardware, facilities, and personnel. Opting for the same service on a usage-based monthly fee eliminates that burden. For mid-sized hospitals lacking the economies of scale of large hospital groups, the managed-service route is often the only financially viable option to meet tightened regulatory requirements within the required timeframe—while still preserving investment budgets for core priorities like medical technology, staffing, and patient care.

The human behind the advice

With more than 20 years of professional experience as a health-IT entrepreneur (MEDNOVO, GTMHC Digital Care GmbH), interim manager, and strategy consultant for healthcare organizations, Michael Heinlein has worked and led projects in more than 20 countries worldwide. Since 2012, Michael Heinlein has served as managing partner of GTMHC Digital Care. The company specializes in advising hospitals, nursing facilities, and other healthcare providers on IT and digitalization strategies—and their implementation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which IT tasks does synaforce handle for hospitals?

synaforce manages server operations, IT security, NIS2-compliant critical infrastructure, and proactive monitoring of the entire IT landscape. This allows hospital IT teams to focus on clinical applications and workplace support.

Who is Michael Heinlein?

Michael Heinlein is an economist with over 20 years of professional experience in healthcare. He serves as managing director of GTMHC Digital Care GmbH and has led Health-IT projects in more than 20 countries. He acts as a bridge-builder between medical disciplines, administrative processes, and technology.

What does KRITIS mean for hospitals?

In Germany, hospitals with more than 30,000 inpatient cases per year are classified as critical infrastructure. This subjects them to stringent IT security requirements, which have been further tightened under NIS2. Key aspects include incident reporting, documented risk management, and supplier compliance.

How does proactive monitoring differ from traditional IT maintenance?

Traditional maintenance reacts to reported issues. Proactive monitoring identifies anomalies in logs, load behavior, and network traffic before they escalate into outages. In critical medical environments, where even a minute of downtime impacts patient care, this makes a significant difference.

What role does the electronic patient record play in this context?

The electronic patient record (ePA) has been mandatory since 2025 and is a central component of integrated care. It requires integration with existing hospital information systems, strict data protection, and clear governance. For many hospitals, this represents a standalone project within their broader digitalization strategy.

Source of cover image: Unsplash / National Cancer Institute