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Data Hub for Korian in the Pflege 2030 programme
Korian is Europe's leading provider of care and nursing services. For the Pflege 2030 programme we designed, built and integrated a Data Hub that brings existing IT systems, wearables and connected medical devices from the resident's room together on a shared data layer that follows the FHIR healthcare standard.
Korian
Care and nursing services
- 14 IT systems on one data foundation
- 27 Device manufacturers connected
Starting point
Connected care needs a common language.
Korian runs a large number of care and nursing facilities in Germany and across Europe. With the Pflege 2030 programme, Korian set out to put technology under the care of the future: wearables, connected medical devices in the resident's room and new software applications are meant to take load off nursing staff and make the quality of care measurable.
The reality of the system landscape is a different matter. Every software tool, every wearable and every new device speaks its own protocol, delivers its own data formats and brings its own cloud connection. Existing systems from care documentation and administration know nothing about these new systems.
So the task was not to add yet another system, but to create a central data layer that new products can connect to cleanly, without replacing the existing IT landscape. With a common standard, one controlled entry point and a permissions model that holds.
Approach
From concept through development into production.
We did not install a finished platform. We built along the products evaluated together within the Pflege 2030 programme. First the architecture that can carry everything, then layer by layer the actual connections, each time with the providers and the Korian IT team at the table.
- 01
Concept and architecture of the Data Hub
At first the hub existed only on paper. Together with the stakeholders from Pflege 2030 we defined which data model could carry everything, which architecture would stand up to the variety of providers, and how each system enters the hub in a controlled way. Out of that came a data model following the FHIR healthcare standard as the common denominator, an interface management portal as the central entry point, and an architecture that carries systems of very different maturity side by side.
- 02
Interface portal and central authentication
Every system that connects to the Data Hub comes in through one central portal. Authentication and authorisation run through the same portal: which provider, which application and which user may access which data points, in what context, with what justification. That way a new integration is not a new security question but a case within the existing model.
- 03
Integration into the Korian system landscape
The existing IT infrastructure was not replaced. Instead, the existing systems are connected to the Data Hub so that structured data is translated into the shared FHIR model, without the source systems disappearing from the daily work of nursing staff. Exactly where care is organised, the familiar workplace stays in place.
- 04
Wearables and connected devices in the resident's room
At the core of the Pflege 2030 programme are devices that record vital signs, movement and events in the resident's room. These wearables and connected medical devices are linked through the Data Hub interfaces and deliver structured data into the shared model, instead of disappearing into proprietary manufacturer clouds. What is recorded in the room therefore stays under Korian's control.
- 05
Onboarding and support for third-party providers
So that the hub would be more than a technical promise, we actively supported the selected third-party providers with their integration: first conversations, interface reviews, integration tests, clarifying how their data maps onto the shared model. Every new connection follows a documented pattern rather than a one-off solution.
Impact
One data layer the next system simply connects to.
The Data Hub is running in production at selected Korian locations. Data from care documentation, from the existing systems and from the devices used in the resident's room flows through a shared data layer, follows the FHIR standard and is properly protected by the central authentication model.
Nursing staff carry on working in the applications they know. What has changed is what happens behind those interfaces: data is no longer trapped on individual manufacturer islands but available to the next use case in the same language. In the same way, new providers joining through Pflege 2030 can be connected without new special-case logic.
For Korian the Data Hub is therefore the infrastructure on which the next building blocks of Pflege 2030 are built. Every further system becomes a connection within the existing pattern rather than a new integration project. That decouples the growth of digital care from the effort inside IT.
Many systems, no shared picture?
What works at Korian transfers to any organisation where existing systems, new devices and third-party providers have to come together. In a first conversation we can see where the greatest friction sits for you and what a first step would look like.