Dagmar Möbius

When she was at school, Dr. Susanne Ozegowski took part in model UN conferences. She went on to study International Relations at TU Dresden, but ultimately decided to pursue a career in healthcare. Dr. Susanne Ozegowski, who is from Berlin and recently received the accolade Manager of the Year, has headed the Department of Digitalization and Innovation at the Federal Ministry of Health since 2022 and has big plans for the future.

"We just need to wait for the baby to drift off," she explains. No problem. Our conversation takes place on the spur of the moment as we join her on a walk with her baby. Susanne Ozegowski has a doctorate in health sciences and is currently on parental leave with her second child. However, she has not turned her back on her professional field and is closely following current developments "from the sidelines." Flexibility and confidence in a variety of scientific methods are just two of the benefits she gained from completing her Bachelor's degree in International Relations with a focus on economics at TU Dresden from 2003 to 2006.

From model UN to a unique degree program

She owes her decision to study International Relations to a school study group: "We simulated UN conferences every week. Students were assigned a country by lot. I had Afghanistan. When looking into the escalation in the country, I realized that you have to face it head on." She was fascinated by the refugee issues in the early 2000s and "politics on a very large scale." And how this can influence people's lives. She says: "You can set the course on a systemic level, but in the end it's about the individual." The realization that she found international politics extremely exciting and "later wanted to make the world a little bit better at the United Nations or an international organization" led Susanne Ozegowski to study International Relations at TUD in 2003, a course that was at that time unique in Germany. "A great curriculum, a small, select group of students – and all this in a beautiful city at a renowned university," were all factors that nudged her in the right direction.

Making a difference in Dresden - Lugano - Hamburg - Berlin

Immediately after completing her Bachelor's degree, Susanne Ozegowski moved to the University of Lugano in Switzerland to commence a Master's degree in "communication and business." She graduated summa cum laude in 2008. By talking with a number of different people, she discovered that a career in diplomacy was not for her, as she really wanted to make a difference. She took up her first job immediately after finishing her studies at the Boston Consulting Group, where she was in charge of reorganizing projects for financial service providers and health insurance companies. In addition, she worked towards transforming the BCG approach into a value-based healthcare system.

Between 2010 and 2013, she also completed a Master of Public Health at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin and a doctorate at TU Berlin. Her research topic: "Regional differences in outpatient care: extent, causes and need for reform of a lack of fairness in the distribution of medical professionals". Her final grade: Summa cum laude.

Between 2014 and 2017, Dr. Susanne Ozegowski was Managing Director of the Bundesverband Managed Care in Berlin. The association understands its role as an innovation forum at the interface between politics, science and the healthcare industry. It is committed to ensuring a sustainable, quality-assured and patient-oriented approach to the healthcare system.

She then worked as a representative and project manager for the electronic patient file, and as team leader for individual contracts in the care management department of the health insurance provider Techniker Krankenkasse. From 2019, she headed the corporate development division at the headquarters of Techniker Krankenkasse in Hamburg. In this position, she was responsible for and coordinated the health insurance provider's digital strategy and led their analytics and data science team. Since April 2022, she has headed the Department of Digitalization and Innovation at the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG).

Standing up for better healthcare

In the capital, Dr. Susanne Ozegowski is responsible for implementing the BMG's political agenda in the area of digitalization. She was so successful that she was honored with the Thieme Management Award 2024, receiving the accolade Manager of the Year. Alongside 19 others, she was nominated by readers of the Klinik Management aktuell (kma) magazine. The jury lauded her for her sustainable and innovative approach, in particular the implementation of pioneering projects in the healthcare sector. Specifically, these projects played a key role in driving forward the introduction of the electronic prescription (ePrescription) and the electronic patient file (ePA).

"It's always about balancing security and usability," she explains, well aware that there are still a number of obstacles to overcome. "Germany has different requirements than other countries" is just one. "The digital identity is something that needs to be established." This would make it possible to log in to a wide range of online applications in a secure and user-friendly way. Until now, you had to register separately for each application, and in the end you often had to print out forms and applications and send them in by post. "It is also difficult to agree on uniform standards for over 150 different IT systems in the healthcare sector," says Dr. Susanne Ozegowski, citing another example. People who are not digitally savvy must also be considered. There is also still a lot that needs to be done with the ePA: "It is an important milestone that it has been rolled out nationwide this year. The next step is to make health data readable via PDFs and convert it into a structured form.

Watching from the sidelines and outlook for the future

During her parental leave, Dr. Susanne Ozegowski is taking more of a backseat role with regards to the aforementioned issues, but making sure to be involved in the important events. On her return, she and her 70-strong team will work towards developing and accelerating the ePA. She also works very closely with the approximately 400 employees of the National Agency for Digital Medicine (gematik) in both practical and operational terms. Other upcoming challenges include the implementation of the primary care system, the stabilization of fees and the use of artificial intelligence, for example to analyze healthcare data. The current Minister of Health of course plays a role in influencing the direction of our work. Be that as it may: "The consensus between all parties is that more digitalization is needed and it helps a lot."

Perseverance pays off

Dr. Susanne Ozegowski's current professional life has little to do with her Bachelor's degree in International Relations at TUD. "Nevertheless, it got me to where I am now. For example, I learned to structure myself and my time well in the face of a very full curriculum and how to proceed in a very systematic way. I also found the interdisciplinary approach, including aspects of economics, law, history and political science, extremely enriching." She has fond memories of the lectures given by Professor Sabine Freifrau von Schorlemer: "A very impressive person. And I find it fascinating how she went into politics herself."

Dr. Susanne Ozegowski has the following advice for today's alumni: "Not every subject or task at university is exciting. Nevertheless, it is important to persevere. You will also need this stamina later on in your career – as well as the ability to organize yourself well and work well together in a team."

Contact:
Dr. Susanne Ozegowski

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