Currently submitted to: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Apr 28, 2026
Open Peer Review Period: Jun 4, 2026 - Jul 30, 2026
(currently open for review)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Information systems’ integration for a Physical Therapy Institute in a German Medical Center: A Systematic Strategic Planning Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
There are few theoretical frameworks in the literature for the strategic planning of health information systems. Demonstrating and analyzing their use in practice can lead to a broader application and evidence-based decision making.
Objective:
The study aimed to analyze and assess the information systems of a university hospital’s physi-cal therapy section and a university department of physical therapy in order to plan their integra-tion following the merger of the two facilities to form an institute for physical therapy at a Ger-man medical center. Building on this, a strategic plan for the institute’s information system is proposed.
Methods:
We used a methodological framework for the strategic planning of information systems in hos-pitals, extended it by lean management methods and applied it at the organizational unit level. We described the organizational units’ information systems’ static view by the three-layer graph-based metamodel for health information systems (3LGM²) and the dynamic view by Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN). Information sources were interviews with per-sonnel.
Results:
A strategic management plan for developing the institute’s information system has been pro-posed. A migration path has been established with 23 tactical projects over the next 3 years to accomplish to attain strategic management goals.
Conclusions:
The method for strategic planning of information systems could successfully be adapted to the organizational unit level and should therefore be applied to other departments in hospitals as well. It helps them identify weaknesses in information logistics through a systematic approach, enabling gradual improvement as part of a long-term plan.
Citation
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