# New German Digital Strategy: 70% AI Documentation Standard by 2028

BMG 2026 strategy: AI-supported documentation becomes the standard in more than 70% of German healthcare facilities by 2028. What clinicians need to know.

- Author: Nixi AI Policy Team, Nixi AI (Regulatory analysis)
- Published: 2026-02-17
- Updated: 2026-02-17
- Read online: https://www.nixiai.ai/en/insights/german-healthcare-digital-strategy-2026-ai-documentation-mandate

**WHITE PAPER — The 2028 Standard**

Why AI documentation is no longer optional in German healthcare.

- Source: Bundesministerium für Gesundheit (BMG)
- Publication: *Weiterentwicklung der Digitalisierungsstrategie*
- Date: February 2026
- Mandate: 70% AI adoption by 2028
- Target: all healthcare and nursing facilities

## Executive summary

In February 2026, the **Federal Ministry of Health (BMG)** released the
*Weiterentwicklung der Digitalisierungsstrategie* — a definitive roadmap for
the next four years. Moving beyond baseline infrastructure like the
Telematics Infrastructure (TI), the strategy declares a new era of
**"utilization-oriented technologies"**.

> **The 2028 target:** *"AI-supported documentation is to become the standard in healthcare and
>   nursing care; more than 70 percent of facilities are expected to use this
>   actively by 2028."*

The most critical takeaway for medical practices is a specific, quantifiable
goal. Practices that cling to manual typing face the risk of falling behind
in **"digital maturity"** — a metric the Ministry explicitly expects to
increase by 35% across hospitals and facilities starting now.

**The 2026 strategy — key numbers**

| Metric | Target |
| --- | --- |
| AI documentation adoption (facilities) | 70% by 2028 |
| Digital-maturity increase (hospitals) | +35% |
| ePA active users | 20M+ by 2030 |
| Strategy publication | Feb 2026 |

*Source: BMG, Weiterentwicklung der Digitalisierungsstrategie (Feb 2026).*

## 1. The core mandate: 70% adoption by 2028

The era of manual data entry is officially ending. The strategy explicitly
states:

> *"AI-supported documentation is to become the standard in healthcare and
> nursing care; more than 70 percent of facilities are expected to use this
> actively by 2028."*

This is not a suggestion — it is a strategic objective embedded in "Action
Field 2" (*Data Generation*) and "Action Field 3" (*Technologies*). The
goal is to move away from isolated data silos and unstructured notes toward
**structured, high-quality data** that improves care quality and research
capabilities.

## 2. Why the shift? The strategic drivers

The Ministry identifies several drivers for this aggressive push toward AI:

- **Administrative relief.** The strategy highlights that AI can automate
  documentation and administrative processes, freeing up time for direct
  patient care.
- **Structuring the unstructured.** A major hurdle in the current system is
  that data is often unstructured. AI applications can specifically help
  transform unstructured data (e.g. spoken doctor–patient conversations)
  into structured formats.
- **Interoperability.** To make data usable for the electronic patient
  record (ePA) and the research data center (FDZ), it must be
  interoperable. AI is the bridge that converts clinical input into these
  standards.

## 3. Legal certainty and "blueprints"

A common hesitation for practices has been legal uncertainty regarding AI.
The 2026 strategy addresses this directly with short-term measures
starting immediately:

- **Legal clarity.** Providers will receive legal certainty about which AI
  applications they can use and for what purposes.
- **Conformity blueprints.** By the end of 2028, the government will
  provide blueprints for the creation of conformity-assessment documents
  for AI applications in healthcare.
- **AI real-world labs (Reallabore).** The Ministry is establishing
  testing environments to provide regulatory advice on the development
  and use of AI, ensuring data-privacy compliance.

## 4. The role of the ePA (electronic patient record)

The AI documentation push is inextricably linked to the ePA. The strategy
targets that **more than 20 million insured persons** will actively use
the ePA by 2030.

- **Standardization.** Clinical data profiles (e.g. for diabetes or heart
  failure) will be defined so that AI can generate care instructions based
  on structured data points.
- **Data flow.** The vision is for structured data to flow from the point
  of care (the doctor's voice / AI) into the ePA and subsequently into
  research databases (FDZ).

## Conclusion — action required

The publication of the 2026 strategy signals that AI documentation is
transitioning from an "early adopter" advantage to a **regulatory
expectation**. With the clear target that 70% of facilities must actively
use AI documentation by 2028, practices that cling to manual typing face
the risk of falling behind in "digital maturity" — a metric the Ministry
expects to increase by 35% across hospitals and facilities.

> **Recommendation.** Medical practices should begin implementing AI
>   scribing solutions now to align with the "Digital by Default" trajectory
>   of the German healthcare system.