Judith Gerlach, Bayerischen Staatsministerin für Gesundheit, Pflege und Prävention

Bavarian Health Minister goes North

The German Freistaat’s Health Minister, Judith Gerlach, has been announced as the keynote speaker for the upcoming Radical Health Festival in Helsinki. The appointment enhances the event’s international profile and reinforces Bavaria’s ambition as a key player in digital innovation.

Gerlach will open the festival alongside Finland’s Minister of Social Affairs and Health, Sanni Grahn-Laasonen, focusing on the question of why “prevention and precision” should be deployed “at scale”. The session will be moderated by Dr. Päivi Sillanaukee, Special Envoy for the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, Finland.

The Minister’s “Digital Offensive”

Gerlach’s has recently announced a “Digital Offensive” in healthcare. Key components include the development of the ‘Bavarian Cloud for Health Research (BCHR)’, designed to optimise the data foundation for healthcare, science, and innovation.

Additionally, the ‘HighMed Agenda’ and the forthcoming ‘HighCare Agenda’ will consolidate significant measures and projects in Bavaria’s healthcare system, with plans to invest approximately 6 million Euros in 2024 for new digitalization and future technology projects.

The iniative also supports advancements in artificial intelligence for diagnostic and treatment, as well as in telehealth. And a digital ecosystem ‚Health Care BY Your Side‘ will accompany patients, doctors and nurses through the digitisation and innovation of the healthcare system.

From agriculture land to high-tech state

Bavaria began its transformation from an agricultural economy to a high-tech hub in the late nineties, a shift encapsulated by German President Roman Herzog in the phrase “Laptop und Lederhosen”. In Bavaria, he said, “enthusiasm for technology and tradition, joy for innovation and down-to-earthness are not insurmountable opposites”—a sentiment that echoes well within the Finnish context.

As a consequence, the state’s capital, Munich, quickly established itself as Europe’s second-largest hub for startups during the New Economy boom at the turn of the millennium. It has since attracted the who’s who of the US tech elite—from Microsoft to Apple, Google to Salesforce.

While in healthcare, Munich may not come close to the prominence of Germany’s capital Berlin with its unmatched mix of government access, federal institutions, conferences, start-ups and the country’s best healthcare providers, Bavaria has its own unique strengths.

Bavaria’s innovators benefit of its economic power

Bavaria excels in the ability of its educational institutions to bridge academic education with practical know-how from the numerous businesses headquartered there. TUM, the Technical University of Munich, is leading the ranking of universities in Germany that produce the most startups (114 in 2021); The Technical University of Berlin had fewer than half that number in the same year. Initiatives like the Digital Health Hub Nürnberg/Erlangen, home to Siemens Healthineers, foster vibrant environments for innovation, while the InsurTech Hub Munich plays a crucial role in linking the insurance and technology sectors.

The health and tech boom has reached even the remote areas. Across the state, high-quality rehabilitation facilities cater to a variety of medical needs, including orthopaedic, neurological, and cardiovascular rehabilitation, as well as wellness and recovery programs. These facilities stand to benefit from the new generation of digital health professionals being trained at the European Campus Rottal-Inn, where students from over 90 countries are currently pursuing a Digital Health Masters offered by the Deggendorf Institute of Technology.

All this will provide an interesting back-drop to the Minister’s participation at the Radical Health Festival Helsinki 2024 , which will take place in Helsinki, Finland from May 21-23, 2024. The Minister’s speech will be on May 21st, at 5:30 PM.

Image (C) Bavarian Health Minister Judith Gerlach. Susie Knoll © Stimmkreisbüro Judith Gerlach