Deutsche Telekom Backs Tandem's European Health AI Ambitions

Swedish health tech company Tandem Health and Deutsche Telekom are looking to accelerate European healthcare’s AI transition as the German telecommunications giant invests in the business through its investment arm, T.Capital, as part of its Series B funding round.

The investment, alongside participation from Norrsken VC and LG Technology Ventures, will support Tandem Health's ambition to develop an AI-powered platform for healthcare providers across Europe.

The company's flagship product, an AI medical assistant, brings clinical documentation, medical coding and decision support together in a single platform. 

Its technology is already being used across more than 10,000 healthcare facilities in 14 European countries, including Germany, and is integrated with approximately 130 electronic health record (EHR) systems.

The solution is also certified as a Class IIa medical device under the EU Medical Device Regulation (MDR), reflecting its clinical credentials.

For Tandem Health, the ambition extends beyond automating individual administrative tasks, with Tandem Health’s Co-Founder and CEO Lukas Saari revealing the company’s lofty ambitions.

"We want to give Europe's healthcare professionals back one billion hours, so physicians and nursing staff can spend less time on paperwork and more time with their patients," he says.

He also emphasised the joint mission shared by both partners in a LinkedIn post discussing the partnership: “We chose them, and they chose us, for the same reason: to accelerate bringing European healthcare into the AI era,” he writes.

Tackling healthcare's administrative burden

Healthcare systems across Europe are facing mounting operational pressures, with workforce shortages, increasing documentation requirements and financial constraints placing significant demands on providers.

Administrative workloads are a particular challenge for clinicians, taking time away from direct patient care and contributing to pressures on already stretched services.

In the UK, for example, a survey by ambient voice technology developer Heidi found that 80% of NHS professionals surveyed say their administrative workload has increased in recent years, with clinicians spending an average of 1.3 hours daily on administrative tasks in addition to a full schedule of patient care.

AI-powered tools offer an opportunity to streamline these processes, automating elements of clinical documentation and supporting more efficient workflows.

Deutsche Telekom sees this as an important area of growth for its healthcare and digital infrastructure businesses.

"Artificial intelligence will play a key role in addressing the challenges facing healthcare. Through Tandem Health, we are investing in a fast-growing European company that noticeably reduces the administrative burden on healthcare professionals while meeting high standards for quality, safety and compliance," says Karine Peters, Managing Director at T.Capital.

She adds that the partnership reflects the potential for technology to make a meaningful difference to healthcare professionals while improving the quality and efficiency of care.

Putting clinical quality and patient safety first

AI's increasing integration into healthcare naturally raises questions surrounding clinical governance, data protection and patient safety.

For healthcare providers, adopting new technology requires confidence that solutions can operate within existing clinical environments while meeting the standards expected of medical devices.

Heidi Stensmyren, Medical Director at Tandem Health, emphasises the importance of putting these considerations at the centre of AI development.

"As a physician, what matters most to me is that AI in healthcare puts clinical quality, safety and trust first. That requires partners who understand how health systems work and has long experience bringing value to society," she writes in a LinkedIn post announcing the partnership.

The involvement of Deutsche Telekom and T-Systems provides Tandem Health with a partner that already has an established presence in Germany's healthcare sector, potentially helping the company expand its reach among hospitals and other providers.

Building an AI-native healthcare platform

Beyond its existing documentation, coding and clinical decision support capabilities, Tandem Health is developing additional applications covering patient navigation, appointment management and administrative processes.

The longer-term ambition is to establish what the company describes as an AI-native operating system for European healthcare providers, bringing multiple intelligent applications together to support clinical and operational workflows.

For Lukas, building this infrastructure requires partnerships that understand the complexity of European healthcare systems.

"Europe should set the standards for how AI is used in healthcare. That requires European partners that understand care systems and their specific characteristics. With T-Systems, which already works with hospitals throughout Germany, Telekom is exactly that partner," he says.

The investment also aligns with Deutsche Telekom's wider strategy to support innovation across AI, digital platforms and sovereign cloud infrastructure, particularly in highly regulated industries.

Deutsche Telekom - key healthcare partners

University Medical Center Freiburg

CEO/Chief Medical Officer: Prof Frederik Wenz | HQ: Freiburg, Germany

University Medical Center Freiburg is a leading German university hospital combining patient care, medical research and education. It has partnered with Deutsche Telekom's T-Systems and healthcare technology provider synedra to establish a centralised Health Content Management (HCM) platform, connecting clinical information across previously disconnected systems. The platform integrates laboratory results, radiology images and specialist reports, giving clinicians faster access to patient information. By standardising and connecting clinical data, the collaboration is also laying the foundations for AI-powered applications, with the hospital already beginning to deploy its first AI-driven solutions. 

Kliniken der Stadt Köln

Managing Directors: Daniel Dellmann and Prof. Axel Goßmann (Managing Directors) | HQ: Cologne, Germany

Kliniken der Stadt Köln is a municipal hospital group operating several hospitals and specialist medical centres across Cologne. In December 2025, it partnered with Deutsche Telekom and Fraunhofer IAIS to develop AI agents for emergency departments. The technology is designed to organise clinical information according to medical priorities and support documentation during emergency trauma care.