SAP and Fresenius plan a strategic partnership to build a sovereign digital health backbone
Two heavyweights in tech and healthcare are moving to partner. SAP SE and Fresenius announced their intent to form a strategic partnership to speed up innovation and deliver more secure, interoperable, AI-supported care.
The shared goal: create an open, integrated, data-driven ecosystem that hospitals and medical facilities can trust. Think connected workflows, consistent standards, and AI you can deploy with confidence.
What's being built
The companies plan to co-build a scalable healthcare platform that connects data across the full care chain. On top of that, they'll develop AI-supported solutions aimed at improving quality, transparency, and efficiency from admission to discharge and beyond.
- Core tech stack: SAP Business Suite, SAP Business Data Cloud (SAP BDC), SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP), and SAP Business AI.
- Outcome: A unified, compliant, open, and expandable base for secure data exchange and controlled AI operations.
Interoperability by design
The plan includes a sovereign European solution that integrates modern hospital information systems (HIS) under SAP's "AnyEMR" strategy. Interfaces built on open standards like HL7 FHIR will connect HIS, EMRs, and other clinical applications more smoothly.
For teams standardizing data models and APIs, review the HL7 FHIR standard here: HL7 FHIR.
Data sovereignty, security, and compliance
The platform is intended to keep control of health data where it belongs and operate AI in a governed environment. That includes strict adherence to data protection requirements and support for regional sovereignty priorities.
Context: the EU is advancing data access and protection frameworks in healthcare. See the European Health Data Space overview: European Health Data Space (EHDS).
Why this matters for hospitals and clinicians
- Connected care: A consistent data foundation across sites, departments, and systems.
- AI you can trust: Model operations in a controlled environment with clear auditability.
- Standards first: Open interfaces (e.g., FHIR) reduce integration friction and vendor lock-in.
- Faster workflows: Tighter EMR/HIS interoperability and simpler links to diagnostics and specialty apps.
- Operational clarity: Better transparency for quality metrics, resource use, and outcomes.
Investment and collaboration model
Both companies plan to invest a mid three-digit million euro amount over the medium term to push digital and AI-supported healthcare across Germany and Europe. The partnership will include joint investments in startups and scaleups, joint technology development, and close coordination under shared governance structures.
Leadership perspectives
Christian Klein, CEO of SAP SE, emphasized that combining SAP's technology with Fresenius' healthcare expertise can set new standards for data sovereignty, security, and innovation-helping Fresenius fully use digital and AI-supported processes to improve patient care.
Michael Sen, CEO of Fresenius, stated that working with SAP can accelerate digital transformation in Germany and Europe and enable a sovereign European solution. "We are making data and AI everyday companions that are secure, simple and scalable for doctors and hospital teams. This creates more room for what truly matters: caring for patients."
What healthcare leaders can do now
- Map your current data flows and identify where FHIR-based interfaces would add the most value.
- Assess HIS and EMR compatibility with open standards and define a plan to reduce custom integrations.
- Set up AI governance covering data lineage, model validation, bias monitoring, and clinical oversight.
- Prioritize use cases with measurable outcomes (e.g., discharge planning, capacity management, sepsis alerts).
- Engage IT, clinical leadership, and compliance early to align requirements and change management.
- Plan skills development for clinical, data, and IT teams. If helpful, explore AI courses by job role to support adoption.
Bottom line
This planned SAP-Fresenius partnership points to a practical route for interoperable, AI-ready healthcare infrastructure-built on open standards, governed data, and scalable platforms. For providers, the near-term opportunity is to get your data house in order and prepare teams to put AI to work safely and effectively.
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