Written in collaboration with Amélie Bazin, member of The Blog Team
Surgical and pharmacy robots, tools for managing human resources and appointments, electronic patient records, connected sensors, Artificial Intelligence (AI)… digitalisation has made its way into the hospital environment. Applied to both the administrative processes and the organisation of care, it promises to address a host of challenges and benefit patients, healthcare professionals, and hospitals alike.
In this blog, we take a look at how hospitals deal with digitalisation and the profound impact it has, not only on the healthcare sector in Luxembourg, but also worldwide. Let’s take the pulse of a sector in full transition.
Why are hospitals embarking on digitalisation projects?
The benefits of digitalisation are numerous. It helps relieve practitioners of certain administrative tasks, freeing up more time for patient care. This is especially important for the Grand Duchy, which is struggling to attract healthcare staff at a time when its population is both growing and ageing. This was the focus of one of our previous blog entries, ‘Workforce in the Luxembourg healthcare sector: A system up against the wall,’—and let’s face it, the issue remains as relevant as ever.
Digital technology should also optimise the care pathway and improve patient care. For instance, applying the ‘once-only’ principle, is expected to reduce the need for patients to repeatedly provide administrative data such as their name, registration number or address, saving valuable time for healthcare professionals.
Electronic patient records improve the flow of information between the various practitioners involved in a patient’s care. More broadly, digitalisation is expected to support more personalised care thanks to tools that track a patient’s medical history, allergies, and other key data. Altogether, these advances contribute improving the quality of medical care.
Moreover, certain technologies—such as connected sensors and watches—enable continuous monitoring of key indicators like blood pressure and sleep, even outside hospital settings. This helps reduce overcrowding in medical facilities, but it also supports early detection of certain conditions, shifting the focus from curative to preventive care.
Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) devices play a pivotal role in this transformation by offering real-time insights into a patient’s condition, enabling healthcare providers to make timely, proactive clinical decisions. Hospitals are also becoming smarter by using the Internet of Things (IoT), which connects devices, equipment, and systems for more integrated and responsive care. For example, wearable health monitors can track heart rate, oxygen levels, and physical activity, transmitting this data directly to medical teams in real time.
Digital technologies are also empowering patients by giving them direct access to their health information. Secure online patient portals allow individuals to view test results, book appointments, renew prescriptions, and communicate with their healthcare providers. This level of access gives patients greater control over their healthcare journey and encourages a more collaborative relationship between patients and doctors. Additionally, these portals enhance transparency and help patients stay informed about their treatment plans, reducing misunderstandings and improving satisfaction.
In parallel, AI holds strong potential to support healthcare professionals in diagnosing conditions, analysing medical images, and prescribing treatments. It can also enhance the organisation of care by optimising patient flow and managing bed occupancy.
Another advantage that is far from anecdotal in Luxembourg is AI’s ability to translate and standardise notes, making them understandable to all practitioners regardless of their native language. AI can also structure these notes for greater clarity, extract key information requiring attention, and store it in databases using appropriate coding standards.
Importantly, each of these benefits can contribute to cost reduction—a significant incentive for hospital systems seeking greater efficiency.
Where do Luxembourg’s hospitals stand in Europe’s digitalisation race?
While much strategic thinking is underway, it’s clear that the European agenda plays a central role in Luxembourg’s healthcare digitalisation efforts. One key initiative is the European Health Data Space (EHDS), approved by the European Parliament and Council last spring. The EHDS aims to enable citizens to have an electronic patient file that can be transferred across all EU Member States—an initiative that is expected to have a significant impact in the Grand Duchy.
Indeed, as Europe advances interoperability at the EU level, it is reasonable to expect similar progress nationally. LUXITH, the IT arm of the Fédération des Hôpitaux Luxembourgeois, has made this a cornerstone of its 2030 vision. The goal is for all Luxembourg hospitals to either adopt a shared system —already the case for medical imaging and human resources management—or, failing that, ensure their systems can communicate seamlessly.
This vision focuses on establishing legal, operational, technical, and semantic interoperability. A second key element is the creation of a Health Content Management (HCM) platform—a centralised tool for storing and sharing medical and healthcare documentation. These are the key projects currently taking shape.
What are the main obstacles Luxembourg hospitals face?
System interoperability remains one of the key challenges across the entire healthcare chain. Even if this challenge were overcome, the quantity and quality of health data would still pose an issue. Data often varies significantly from one practitioner to another and can’t be used to its full potential if it is incomplete or inconsistent.
As the healthcare sector becomes more digitalised, the risk of cyberattacks increases—putting sensitive patient data at risk. Addressing this requires robust cybersecurity measures, significant investment in infrastructure and technical expertise, as well as proper training for healthcare professionals and awareness-raising among patients. To mitigate these risks, hospitals are implementing encryption, multi-factor authentication, and other cybersecurity technologies to safeguard information and ensure compliance with privacy regulations.
Financing is yet another concern. While some digitalisation projects are relatively affordable, others require substantial upfront investment, with benefits that may only be realised in the medium to long term—sometimes under future leadership. The real challenge, therefore, is to adopt a long-term vision and resist the pull of short-term thinking.
How can we at PwC Luxembourg help healthcare players overcome these challenges?
At PwC, we have a team dedicated to the healthcare sector that works closely with a wide range of public and private stakeholders, both on national initiatives and European projects. This gives us a broad, neutral perspective of the sector—one that allows us to support its evolution by sharing lessons learned and insights from other contexts.
Our team brings cross-disciplinary expertise, sometimes drawn from other sectors, which provides a fresh perspective on strategic aspects. At the same time, we offer deep organisational and technological know-how allowing us to advise on more operational aspects as well.
With all this in mind, the message we want share with those involved in the hospital sector is this: digitalisation is a means to an end, not an end in itself. It’s important to keep the focus on the concrete benefits it brings to each stakeholder—patients, healthcare professionals, and institutions alike. This is the only way to ensure lasting engagement and buy-in. Because while alone we go faster, together we go further.
What we think
The future of healthcare lies in the seamless integration of technology with care—where digital tools empower both patients and providers to make informed decisions, improve outcomes, and redefine what’s possible in the healing process
Digital transformation in healthcare isn’t just about technology; it’s about creating a system where data empowers better care, greater efficiency, and stronger connections between patients and providers.
