Meet our conference speakers – Flash interview with Dr. Arnt Suckow

This interview is published ahead of the European Patient Safety Conference in Munich, co-organised by the European Patient Safety Foundation (EUPSF), the German Coalition for Patient Safety (APS), and TUM University Hospital. Dr. Suckow will moderate the session on data-driven patient safety and speak as a panelist in the session on Governance.

Why is TUM University Hospital co-organising the European Patient Safety Conference, and what do you hope it brings to Munich and to Europe?

Patient safety does not stop at the hospital door, or at national borders. This conference provides an opportunity to share knowledge and learn from successful but also unsuccessful projects across Europe. Often the greatest lessons come from failure, because they expose blind spots and force us to rethink.

TUM University Hospital has invested  in safety and quality, but as a relatively young institution after the merger with the German Heart Center Munich, we also want to strengthen our identity in this field. Co-organising the conference underlines that commitment. It is also about people:  papers and reports are valuable, but nothing replaces face-to-face exchange. Building trust, sharing experiences, and hearing stories directly from colleagues makes a real difference. Ultimately, patients benefit when hospitals learn from each other, and Munich should be a place where that happens.

World Patient Safety Day 2025 – TUM Klinikum Rechts der Isar dressed in orange, the symbolic colour for patient safety (©TUM Klinikum Rechts der Isar)

You will moderate the session on the risks and potential of data-driven healthcare. Where do you see the biggest opportunities and barriers?

Data is perhaps the most powerful driver of patient safety today. It lets us move from reacting after incidents to acting before they occur. At TUM University Hospital, we benchmark outcomes with hundreds of hospitals and increasingly use routine billing data to generate risk indicators and early warning signals. This means we can sometimes intervene while the patient is still in hospital rather than afterwards. Artificial intelligence will accelerate this, processing volume of data no human team could manage.

But obstacles remain. Strict data protection rules in Germany limit how deeply we can analyse patient information. Skills are another barrier: collecting data is easy, but turning it into actionable insights for clinicians is harder. And then there is trust. Staff are rightly sceptical of numbers unless they clearly see the link to safer care. That is why transparency is crucial, showing how data helps clinical teams instead of adding to their workload. Only then does data become a tool that changes practice.

In the governance session you will speak about making patient safety a true strategic priority. Why is this still such a challenge in large university hospitals?

Hospitals operate under constant operational and financial pressure. Patient safety is too seen as “extra” rather than a foundation of resilience. Improvements require upfront investment in training, staff time, and new processes, while returns come later, often outside the immediate budget cycle. To convince boards, we need evidence that safety it is not just ethically right but also financially sound.

That is why measurement is vital. Without indicators, safety remains abstract and leaders will prioritise what they can count. At TUM University Hospital, we ensure safety is reported regularly at board level and we have integrated quality, risk management, and internal audit into a single governance function. This avoids silos and embeds safety as a driver of organisational success. Once you demonstrate that safer care reduces complications, prevents readmissions, and eases staff workload, it stops being a burden and becomes recognised as a performance driver.

As Patient Safety Manager in a large and complex hospital, what are the main challenges you face, and how do you approach implementing improvements in daily practice?

The first challenge is complexity. A university hospital is a world of its own: dozens of clinics, highly specialised staff, and research and teaching alongside patient care. Not everyone has the same awareness of safety; some are very engaged, others sceptical. Change management therefore takes patience.

What helps is humility. You cannot walk into a department pretending you have the answers. You must listen, observe, and learn before suggesting changes that fit daily reality. My background in research shaped me, as progress in the lab comes through trial and error. Safety in hospitals is similar: progress depends on learning from mistakes.

Resources are another challenge. Safety projects need time, expertise, and technology. At TUM University Hospital, we try to multiply our impact by training a network of quality and risk officers who are embedded in each department. They become local champions and spread the culture of safety more effectively than any central directive.

Finally, it comes down to credibility and trust. Staff must feel safe to report incidents, speak up about near misses, andquestion processes. Building psychological safety is as important as any technical system. Change is slow, but every avoided harm shows that the effort is worthwhile.

Dr. Arnt Suckow
Head of Quality, Risk Management & Internal Audit, TUM University Hospital (Munich)
Speaker in the Panel Discussion: Patient safety as a strategic priority in healthcare governance
Moderator of the Interactive Panel Discussion: The risks and potential of data-driven healthcare