“Every citizen should benefit from their own data”
- lealedwon
- October 10, 2025
- DATA2VALUE INITIATIVE
- 0 Comments
Dr. Markus Vogel, Chief Medical Information Officer and Director of Business Strategy at Microsoft, explains how connecting and trusting health data can help shift healthcare from reactive to predictive, enabling every citizen to benefit from innovation.
From your perspective as both a physician and a digital health leader, where do you see the greatest potential to create impact from health data today?
The true potential of health data lies in transforming it from passive data or documentation into active intelligence. When clinical, genomic, environmental, and patient-generated data are securely connected and interpreted through AI and interoperable infrastructure, we can shift from reactive medicine to predictive, personalized, and preventive care, improving system efficiency and patient outcomes.
What motivated you to leave clinical practice for a career in the technology sector, and what gap in healthcare were you aiming to address?
As a physician, I saw how much time and energy are lost to documentation and disconnected systems. I moved into technology to help close that gap between clinical intent and digital reality. My goal has always been to ensure that technology serves medicine – enhancing empathy, precision, and time for patients, rather than adding friction to care delivery.
Artur Olesch talks to…
The internationally recognized journalist and editor, specializing in healthcare digitalization, talks on behalf of Lemonmint to Those Who Make.
What are the main barriers preventing health data from being turned into outcomes, and how can healthcare systems address them?
The biggest barriers are fragmentation, lack of interoperability, and, remarkably, insufficient trust in data sharing or data deidentification and anonymization. Health systems can address these by adopting common standards, investing in data quality, AI literacy, and ensuring governance that protects patients while enabling collaboration. The technology exists, while still needs improvement to prove its fitness for improved patient outcomes, at reduced or meaningful costs.
How can Europe balance strict data protection with the need to enable innovation and unlock the potential of health data?
Europe’s strength lies in its robust ethical and legal foundations for data protection (and, paradoxically, its fragmented federalism). By embedding privacy-by-design and federated data models, we can enable trusted innovation without compromising individual rights. The European Health Data Space is an important step toward making this balance operational.
Many organizations struggle to translate digital initiatives into measurable results. What conditions are essential to ensure data projects bring real benefits for patients and clinicians?
Too often, digital projects start with interest in technology itself or operational efficiency rather than clinical purpose, patient outcome, or healthcare personnel satisfaction. Success depends on three principles: relevance to real clinical needs, seamless integration into workflows, and transparent measurement of outcomes. Only when data solutions demonstrably improve care quality, efficiency, and experience can they earn lasting adoption.
Where do you see promising examples, in Germany or internationally, of health data already driving progress in practice?
We see strong momentum in ambient documentation pilots in Germany, Austria, and France, where AI supports clinicians in real time; in Nordic countries using national registries for outcome-based care; and in the UK, where federated research models accelerate discovery. Each example shows that when data is used responsibly, it directly improves both patient and provider experience.
Democratization of health data implies broader access. How can we ensure that this access leads to responsible use and real improvements, not just more data collection?
Democratization must go hand in hand with responsibility and data governance. Open access without governance only creates noise, as is very often seen in consumer products. We need transparent consent models, strong AI and data literacy across all stakeholders, and mechanisms that return value to patients and society.
What role should industry leaders, like Microsoft, play in building a health data society that benefits every citizen?
Industry should be an enabler, not a gatekeeper. The role is to build secure, interoperable platforms – like cell phone networks or energy infrastructure – thereby support fair and open ecosystems, and ensure that trust, ethics, and transparency remain at the center of innovation. The goal is simple: every citizen should benefit from their own data and AI for better health.
Markus Vogel is the Chief Medical Information Officer and Director of Business Strategy at Microsoft. He will be speaking at the Data2Value Executive Dialogue on October 14, 2025, in Berlin.
