New Publication Chair Health Economics, Policy and Management

In this book chapter, we explore how digital maturity data can generate actionable insights for health system management. As a foundation, we discuss the use of hospital digital maturity data collected within the DigitalRadar project, which evaluates a €4.3 billion digitalization funding initiative launched by the German government.

Using the DigitalRadar Score (DR-score), we report findings from two studies in which we analyzed hospital-level digital maturity in relation to (1) profitability and (2) hospital quality. While more profitable hospitals—especially those in large hospital chains—tended to be more digitally mature, the relationship between digitalization and quality was less consistent. These findings highlight both the potential and the limitations of current digital maturity metrics in driving system-wide improvements.

Our work underscores the need for better data access and linkage to fully realize the promise of digital transformation in healthcare—a topic we discuss in depth in the chapter. The full chapter is available here.