SAP SE and Fresenius have announced a strategic technology partnership designed to accelerate innovation in digital healthcare delivery by building a sovereign, interoperable, and AI-powered healthcare ecosystem for Europe and beyond. The collaboration brings together SAP’s enterprise software and AI capabilities and Fresenius’s healthcare expertise with the goal of transforming how hospitals and medical facilities use data and AI, while ensuring high standards of data sovereignty, security, and compliance. At the heart of this initiative is the creation of a scalable healthcare platform that will serve as a digital backbone for connected, data-driven processes across the care continuum. Leveraging core SAP technologies such as SAP Business Suite, SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC), SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP), and SAP Business AI, the platform is designed to support secure data exchange, compliant AI operations, and integration with existing clinical systems. A key ambition of the partnership is to build an open, interoperable ecosystem that supports seamless connectivity between varying hospital information systems (HIS) and electronic medical records (EMRs) via open standards like Health Level Seven International (HL7) Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR), highlighting SAP’s broader AnyEMR strategy. “With SAP’s leading technology and Fresenius’ deep healthcare expertise, we aim to create a sovereign, interoperable healthcare platform for Fresenius worldwide. Together, we want to set new standards for data sovereignty, security and innovation in healthcare. Thanks to SAP, Fresenius can harness the full potential of digital and AI-supported processes and sustainably improve patient care,” says Christian Klein, CEO and member of the Executive Board of SAP SE. The multi-million-euro partnership has various forms of collaboration, including joint investments in startups and scaleups, joint technological developments, and close cooperation between companies with coordinated governance structures. “Together with SAP, we (...) are making data and AI everyday companions that are secure, simple, and scalable for doctors and hospital teams,” said Michael Sen, CEO of Fresenuis.

What This Means for SAPinsiders

The reinforcement of healthcare as a strategic industry growth area. This partnership underscores SAP’s commitment to healthcare as a vertical where digital transformation, especially around AI, interoperability, and data sovereignty, is becoming increasingly mission-critical. SAPinsiders with interests in industry solutions should monitor how this initiative informs SAP’s broader healthcare roadmap and product investment signals. Providing real world evidence in a highly complex environment. The project will likely surface real-world use cases for SAP Business AI, SAP BTP, and data platform services in highly regulated contexts like hospitals and medical facilities. SAPinsiders focused on technical enablement, architecture, and compliance will find valuable learnings on balancing innovation with stringent data governance requirements. Expanded opportunities for partners and integrators. With the emphasis on open standards (e.g., HL7 FHIR) and interoperable healthcare processes, SAP partners and systems integrators have a clear runway to build or extend solutions that connect disparate clinical systems, support FHIR-based workflows, or enhance AI-driven insights. This could catalyze new partnership models, certified offerings, or co-innovation projects in the healthcare ecosystem.