Under the motto “Telemedicine and networked medicine – what can federal states do?” There were numerous participants in Berlin on the 11th March 2014 to discuss with the State Secretary for Health from the Brandenburg region – Mrs. Hartwig-Tiedt and the executive director of the Hospital Society of the Saxony region, how the federal states can best use the features of telemedicine. The background was the 86th Conference of Health Ministers of the states passed in June 2013 in Potsdam. As a result of the conference a unanimous decision was made regarding telemedicine. The states require more support for telemedicine with an aim to transfer telemedicine into regular care. It was clear during the meeting that this decision should be seen as a clear commitment of politicians to maximise the potential of telemedicine. The discussion also showed that the sustainable impulses for organization of regular telemedical care must go out from the federal states and they will assume higher responsibilities in the future. The rollouts of projects from Brandenburg and Saxony have shown clearly how telemedicine can change the ambulant and stationary health care, for now and in the future. The event was hosted by the association, Berlin Wirtschaftsgespräche e.V. in cooperation with the German Society for Telemedicine.
