Reflections from DMEA 2025: A Tipping Point?

After spending a few full-on days at DMEA 2025 in Berlin, I came away with a renewed sense of both urgency and optimism.

DMEA remains one of Europe’s biggest health tech events, but what stood out this year wasn’t just the scale—it was the tone. The crowd felt younger, more diverse, and much more focused. People weren’t just browsing booths—they were asking sharp, important questions.

And that, to me, was the biggest shift: less hype, more substance. Fewer buzzwords, more practical conversations. It felt like we’ve moved past the phase of explaining the “what” and are finally getting into the “how.”

From “What is FHIR?” to “How do we make it work?” 

In previous years, we spent a lot of time explaining what FHIR is and why it matters. This year, we saw more of a different kind of question: “Now that we have FHIR, how do we actually get the data we need?”

App developers in particular shared their frustrations about lack of access to real, usable FHIR APIs. And that was a consistent theme—FHIR is becoming the standard, but in many places, implementation is still catching up.

We also had many people ask about what comes after the implementation of a FHIR server. What are the use cases? What more can we do? The shift in focus is clear: FHIR isn’t the end goal anymore—it’s the starting point. 

Germany’s push toward digital first healthcare  

Health Minister Prof. Dr. Karl Lauterbach’s keynote outlined where Germany’s digital health efforts are headed and highlighted the next steps for the Electronic Patient Record (ePA)—”the largest digital project in German public history”.

He identified four major challenges facing the German healthcare system: a lack of preventive care, not enough specialization in hospitals, too much bureaucracy, and a lack of digitalization. His message was clear: digitalization isn’t just one challenge among many; it’s the key to solving the rest. That belief underpins Germany’s Digital First strategy.

Health Minister Lauterbach also shared how the ePA—now active for over 70 million citizens—is starting to make a difference. He highlighted four early impacts:

• Improved patient understanding, through full access to health records
• Higher-quality care, enabled by more complete data
• New research potential, through anonymized datasets and a national health research hub
• Reduced bureaucracy, supported by tools like voice-assisted documentation

The message was clear throughout: the technology infrastructure is ready—now it’s time for adoption.

Navigating EHDS and MII 

The European Health Data Space (EHDS) was a recurring theme at the event—clearly top of mind for many, even though it’s still in the planning stages. EHDS efforts are currently focused on defining the underlying logical model and the terminology to be used. There’s strong momentum, but also a lot of uncertainty around how it will all take shape.

At the same time, the Medical Informatics Initiative (MII) has been extended, but it’s running into a familiar challenge: funding. This limits the MII’s ability to adopt commercial-grade FHIR tooling necessary for scaling. The key challenge ahead is figuring out how to move from promising pilot projects to a sustainable, production-ready infrastructure.

AI’s potential is real, but so are the challenges

One of the most engaging panels I attended was “Beyond Proof of Concept: Realizing AI’s Transformational Potential in Healthcare.” The panelists—from Amazon, BCG, Lyratech AI, and BIH—didn’t sugarcoat it. Yes, AI is powerful. But regulation, trust, and data quality are holding us back.

Prof. Prof. Dr. Sylvia Thun said it best: trust in AI starts with trust in the data. And without clean, accurate, representative datasets, even the most sophisticated AI models become ineffective. But data quality isn’t the only hurdle.

Prof. Thun also highlighted a major regulatory roadblock: the EU AI Act and EU Medical Devices Regulation currently only allow for static AI systems, “but healthcare needs dynamic systems,” Dr. Sylvia Thun argued. Until regulation evolves, we’re going to keep seeing innovation stuck at the pilot stage.

Another panelist made a point that stuck with me: “It’s not about time to market. It’s about time to impact.”

That hit home. Digital health doesn’t succeed when a tool or solution is launched, it succeeds when it’s used, trusted, and integrated—a journey we’ve been on with FHIR since the beginning.

Europe needs to back itself

That same panel ended with a challenge to Europe: stop underestimating your own innovation capacity.

“We in Europe are better at this than we trust ourselves to be.”

I couldn’t agree more. From what I saw at DMEA 2025, we’re at a tipping point. The pieces are there—FHIR, ePA, the AI infrastructure, and strong policy frameworks. Now we need to focus on real-world integration, cultural change, and shared learning.

Another thing that was really different from previous editions is a growing self-awareness among European technology providers, including new cloud initiatives. Alternatives to American big tech clouds are in the making, or already there.

The shift towards cloud, that’s been happening over the last decade, also in healthcare, will continue but it may not be in the direction towards more Azure or AWS. I’ve spoken to heavily funded clouds like Telekom Health Cloud, STACKIT (backed by Lidl in Germany ) and Yorizon Cloud (backed by HOCHTIEF), all Germany-made. Let’s see how these initiatives affect cloud adoption in healthcare and if these clouds will offer FHIR-native capabilities.

Firely’s role in the next chapter

At Firely, we’re focused on helping our partners make the jump from compliance to innovation. Whether that’s preparing for EHDS, supporting ISiK adoption, or helping teams design solutions that run on FHIR, we’re here to make that shift real.

If you stopped by our booth in the FHIRBall Pavilion—thank you. Your questions, ideas, and challenges fuel the work we do every day. And if we didn’t get a chance to talk, feel free to reach out. We’re always happy to continue the conversation.