Buying new technology is relatively easy to measure. Understanding whether a hospital has actually become more digitally capable is much harder.
Recent developments in Italy and Germany show why European health systems are paying more attention to digital maturity. In August 2026, healthcare leaders from Lombardy, Tuscany and Lazio discussed how they are using the HIMSS Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM) to assess digital health initiatives supported through Italy's National Recovery and Resilience Plan. In Germany, the Federal Ministry of Health has also highlighted DigitalRadar, a nationwide framework used to measure hospital digital progress while taking regional differences into account.
Both examples point to a bigger question: what does successful digital transformation actually look like once new systems have been installed?
A digitally advanced hospital is not simply one with more technology. It is one where technology, people and processes work together to improve care.
Digital transformation needs a baseline
Healthcare organisations can invest in electronic records, connected devices, digital patient services and advanced analytics without necessarily knowing whether those investments are improving everyday practice.
Digital maturity frameworks try to make progress more visible. They provide a structured way to examine how well information systems are being adopted and how closely they are connected to clinical processes.
This can help organisations move beyond counting devices or software licences. The more useful questions are whether staff can access the information they need, whether systems support safe decisions, whether data can move where it is required and whether digital processes make care more effective.
Italy: measuring the value of major digital investment
Italy has made significant digital health investments through its National Recovery and Resilience Plan. The August 2026 HIMSS discussion highlighted how regions including Lombardy, Tuscany and Lazio are using the EMRAM maturity model to assess the progress of those initiatives.
The value of this approach is that investment and implementation are treated as different things. Funding can make a new system possible, but organisations still need to understand whether it has become part of normal clinical practice.
This is particularly important in healthcare, where the success of a digital system depends on many groups: clinicians, managers, administrators, IT teams, educators and patients.
Germany: one national framework, different local realities
Germany's DigitalRadar provides another useful example. According to Healthcare IT News, the nationwide approach has been designed to measure how digitally mature hospitals are while still recognising regional differences.
That matters because hospitals do not start from the same position. A large university hospital, a regional hospital and a smaller local facility may have different infrastructure, staffing, patient populations and investment capacity.
Digital transformation therefore needs common goals without assuming that every organisation will follow exactly the same route to reach them.
People are part of digital maturity
A maturity model may sound highly technical, but its implications are strongly human. A hospital cannot be considered digitally successful if staff do not understand the systems, do not trust them or have to create workarounds to get through the day.
Training, leadership and change management therefore matter alongside infrastructure. Healthcare professionals need enough digital confidence to work safely, while managers need to understand how technology changes responsibilities, communication and workflow.
This is also why digital transformation should not be treated as a one-off implementation project. Skills, systems and patient expectations continue to change.
What should future healthcare professionals learn?
Most healthcare students will not be responsible for choosing a hospital's digital maturity framework. But they will work inside the systems those frameworks are trying to improve.
Education can help them understand how digital tools fit into wider organisations. Students can learn to identify workflow problems, recognise when information is not moving effectively, evaluate whether a digital process is helping patients and communicate problems to colleagues from other disciplines.
These are useful skills whether someone becomes a clinician, biomedical engineer, healthcare manager or educator.
What this means for Hybrid Healthcare
Hybrid Healthcare combines digital health technologies with hybrid management because real digital transformation depends on both.
The examples from Italy and Germany reinforce that point. Modern healthcare systems need professionals who can use technology, but they also need people who understand implementation, teamwork, evaluation and continuous improvement.
For healthcare education, digital readiness should therefore mean more than teaching students about the latest technology. It should help them understand how to make digital healthcare work in practice.