“The uptake has been incredible,” said Dr. Birger Haarbrandt, vitagroup’s Head of Technology Advisory & Consulting. “It confirms that there is a growing shift toward a data-first approach that places structured clinical information at the core of digital transformation. Our open source server accelerates innovation and enables the creation of an ecosystem of apps developed by different vendors based on the same data foundation.”

Why it matters?

Open platform such as vitagroup’s EHRbase offer two critical advantages, says Dr. Ian McNicoll, CEO of freshEHR Clinical Informatics and director of the openEHR Foundation: they enable rapid adoption of innovations without engineering effort, and they give healthcare providers direct control over their data models.

“Changes to the data management/API layer — for example, to support innovations like Pharmacogenetics — are model-driven,” Dr. McNicoll explains. “Updates to the Clinical Data Repository (CDR) become usable immediately, without extra database or API engineering. In contrast, typical EPR systems, even when using standards like FHIR, usually require significant rework to handle new types of clinical information.”

In terms of data models control, he adds: “Because model changes can be applied directly to the datastore without engineering effort, healthcare providers gain full control over their data model, a role traditionally held by the datastore provider.”

Who are EHRbase subscribers?

The subscribers represent a diverse range of profiles from different countries including
Germany, the UK, the Nordics and the Netherlands. They include:

• Digital health developers and solution architects
• Hospitals testing next-generation health IT infrastructure
• Startups building apps for clinical workflows, patient records, or care coordination
• Public health bodies exploring standards-based data layers

Their primary use of EHRbase includes:

• Education
• Proof of Concepts
• Application Development

By offering a free and accessible entry point into openEHR, vitagroup is lowering the
barrier to adopt open standards — and inviting a new generation of health tech builders
to work with structured, future-ready clinical data.

To support new users and promote broader adoption of openEHR, vitagroup will host a
series of four live webinars starting this summer. The series is designed to provide both
an introduction to openEHR and practical guidance on working with EHRbase.

>> Register for the webinars here.

If you would like to try out EHRbase, just go this page: https://www.ehrbase.org