---
title: How to Sell Digital Health Software to Hospitals | Torke
url: https://torke.tech/industries/digital-health
description: Why a clinical yes stalls at hospital IT, data protection and the tender, how long contracting takes, who signs, and which signals open an account.
---

# A clinical yes still faces the tender

You sell hospital software, telemedicine services or health data platforms to hospitals, clinic groups and health insurers. A head of department sees the demonstration and wants it, and the deal then waits for hospital IT, the data protection officer and procurement, each of whom asks a question the clinician can't answer.

Diagram: Dated signals in Digital Health

In Digital Health, three dated signals open a target account for outreach: Tender published, New CMIO appointed, System migration.

## Who this page is for

- Hospital software vendors selling to hospitals and clinic groups
- Telemedicine services sold to hospitals, clinic groups and health insurers
- Health data platforms reviewed by hospital IT and data protection officers

Usual starting point: [Demand](https://torke.tech/service#practices)

## How do you increase sales for a digital health company?

Win the hospital's reviewers as well as the clinician. IT, the data protection officer and procurement each need their own evidence, and public hospitals above procurement thresholds must tender, so give them integration, hosting and contract facts before a tender fixes the requirements, and time outreach to tenders, new CMIO appointments and system migrations.

## What do the numbers say about Digital Health?

Each figure links to the page it comes from, so you can check it before you repeat it.

| What the evidence says | Source |
|---|---|
| Over half of hospital executives say finalising contracting for a new solution takes more than three months, and 35% say more than half a year. | Healthcare Innovation, reporting a Panda Health and Sage Growth Partners survey (26 April 2022) |
| Under MDCG 2019-11 Rule 11, software that provides information used for diagnostic or therapeutic decisions is a medical device of class IIa by default. | European Commission, MDCG 2019-11 rev.1 (June 2025) |
| Under the intercantonal procurement rules, an open or selective procedure applies from CHF 250,000 for supplies and services. | Canton of Graubünden (in force since 1 October 2022) |
| Swiss hospital revenues rose 3.6% to CHF 36.60 billion in 2024, with a combined loss of CHF 347 million. | Federal Statistical Office (25 November 2025) |

[](https://hcinnovationgroup.com/clinical-it/digital-health-innovation/news/21265559/survey-hospit) [](https://health.ec.europa.eu/document/download/b45335c5-1679-4c71-a91c-fc7a4d37f12b_en) [](https://www.gr.ch/DE/institutionen/verwaltung/diem/ds/beschaffungswesen/Seiten/Schwellenwerte.a) [](https://www.admin.ch/de/newnsb/4uC4cpdvq-uDPnO7SnfRE)

## Why does the usual approach stall in Digital Health?

In a hospital, the person who wants your product rarely controls the decision. IT has to connect it to the hospital information system and run it next to everything else, the data protection officer needs to know where patient data is stored and who can reach it, and if your software provides information used to take diagnostic or therapeutic decisions, it is a medical device that is classified as class IIa by default under the EU's guidance on medical device software. A hospital that counts as a public contracting authority must also publish contracts above the procurement thresholds, usually on simap in Switzerland, which means the specification is often written before you hear about it. The clinician who championed you forwards your deck to each of these people, and the deck answers the clinician's question rather than the one each reviewer is asking.

Volume marketing reaches the wrong part of this group. Ads and content aimed at clinicians collect interest from people who have no budget, while the IT lead, the data protection officer and the procurement team never see material written for their review. With the hospitals of one country fitting on a single list, a paid platform never sees enough conversions to learn who those people are, and it keeps buying clicks from the readers who were already convinced.

If you sell a consumer health app to patients, or a practice tool that thousands of independent doctors buy on a card, this page describes the wrong problem, and standard demand capture and product-led growth will serve you better. Torke works where the buyers are a known list of hospitals, groups and insurers, each with a buying group of several people.

## Where does pipeline break in Digital Health?

We look at five stages in the Diagnostic, because each fails for a different reason. The rows show the failure we look for first at each stage and what changes once Torke fixes it, in the order a deal meets them.

### Discovery

Where it breaks

Buyers and AI assistants find pages written for clinicians, so the questions hospital IT and the data protection officer ask go unanswered

What changes once it is fixed

Visibility builds the pages hospital IT and the data protection officer read before sales, in the category language buyers use

### Timing

Where it breaks

You hear about a hospital's project when the tender appears on simap, with the requirements already written around another supplier

What changes once it is fixed

Account signals watch tender platforms, newsrooms and job boards for the appointments and system replacements that come before a tender

### Evaluation

Where it breaks

The clinician forwards a deck that answers clinical questions, while IT, data protection and procurement each review it for something else

What changes once it is fixed

The Fix stage builds material for each reviewer, and campaigns on approved claims checks every line against your intended purpose

### Qualification

Where it breaks

Interest from clinicians without budget fills the pipeline, and nobody records whether a reply came from the buying group at a listed hospital

What changes once it is fixed

A reply counts as a qualified lead only with the five facts recorded, such as a named person in the hospital's buying group and a stated need

### Handover

Where it breaks

A hospital group appears as one account, as five sites and as a list of contacts, so marketing and sales report different pipelines

What changes once it is fixed

Revenue operations sets one account structure, one set of lifecycle stages and one routing rule for every hospital and site

## Who is in the buying group?

One person rarely decides alone, so a lead from the wrong role moves nothing. These are the roles we map at every account on your list.

### Who signs

The hospital's executive board, usually the CEO or CFO, with the medical director for clinical systems. In a hospital group, a central digital or IT board often decides which sites go first.

### Who evaluates

The head of the clinical department that will use the product, clinical informatics or the chief medical information officer, and the hospital IT team that runs the integration.

### Who can block

The data protection officer and information security, procurement and legal when public procurement rules apply, and the quality or regulatory officer when the software qualifies as a medical device.

## Which signals open an account in Digital Health?

Each signal is a dated, public event a sceptical buyer could check in thirty seconds. Market-wide news can change an account's conditions, and we never write it up as something that company did.

| Signal | What it changes inside the account |
|---|---|
| A tender is published on simap or a national procurement portal | The requirements are fixed for a defined window, and the question period is the last chance to shape them |
| A new chief digital officer or chief medical information officer is appointed | A new owner reviews the systems in the first months and needs a plan to show |
| A replacement of the hospital information system is announced | Interfaces and workflows are being redesigned, so new components can enter the plan |
| A dated rule such as the EHDS milestone in March 2029 | Hospitals and their suppliers have to plan the exchange of patient summaries and ePrescriptions to a fixed date |
| Hospitals merge or form a group | Systems at several sites have to be consolidated within a set period |

## What does a qualified lead look like here?

The head of clinical informatics at a hospital group on your agreed list replies that they are replacing their discharge workflow before a system migration next year and asks whether your software connects to their information system. The basis for contacting them in their country is recorded, and the account is not an open opportunity in your CRM. That reply, with the migration announcement it answered, is a qualified lead.

A lead counts only when all five facts are recorded, and you have five business days to reject it with a reason. The [Torke Service page](https://torke.tech/service#qualified) explains each fact.

**Fact one**

A named person in the buying group

**Fact two**

At an account you agreed to in writing

**Fact three**

A need or timing in their own words

**Fact four**

A lawful basis for contact

**Fact five**

Not already open in your CRM

## Where should you start?

Every client starts with the Diagnostic, and for digital health it most often points to Demand, because hospital IT, data protection and procurement need their evidence before a tender fixes the requirements.

Every engagement opens with the Diagnostic, two to three weeks that end on one of four decisions: stop, fix one barrier, run one practice, or expand later.

Usual first step for Digital Health

[Demand](https://torke.tech/service#practices)

The practice the Diagnostic most often points to here, run month by month once it does.

[Get in touch](#get-in-touch)

## How do Torke Service and Torke Engine help?

The same engines run in both, so you can begin with one and move to the other without starting over.

### Torke Service, we run it

For example, the Diagnostic may show that your pilots end at the data protection review, because nobody sent the processing details and the hosting location before the question was asked. The Fix stage then builds the pages that IT and the data protection officer read before they speak to sales, and Demand covers those roles at the hospitals on your list.

[How Torke Service works](https://torke.tech/service)

### Torke Engine, your team runs it

Account signals and campaigns on approved claims matter most here, because hospital decisions follow dated events such as tenders and appointments, and because every claim in your marketing is read against your intended purpose. Inbound response helps when requests arrive in several languages and each has to reach the right rep.

For example, a marketer asks the assistant to draft LinkedIn ads for heads of nursing about the discharge module. Every line comes back checked against the approved claims, a sentence that implies diagnostic support is flagged against the intended purpose your regulatory team approved, and the files arrive in LinkedIn's import format with the campaign paused.

[How Torke Engine works](https://torke.tech/engine)

## What can you expect?

You can stop after any stage and keep what it produced.

### A Diagnostic that may say stop

In two to three weeks you learn the one constraint in your pipeline and one of four decisions, and stop is a real outcome when the problem is product, price or budget.

### Leads with their evidence attached

Each lead names a person in the hospital's buying group, their need in their own words, and the recorded basis for contact, and you have five business days to reject it.

### A monthly read with stated uncertainty

Every month you receive the accounts that moved, coverage of your list and spend against plan, and results too small to judge are reported as too small to judge.

## What do teams in Digital Health ask about Torke?

Each answer stands on its own, so you can forward one to a colleague, and an assistant asked the same question can quote it as it is.

### Where should a digital health company start?

A digital health company starts with Torke's Diagnostic, which takes two to three weeks and looks at pilots that pleased a department and then stopped. It most often points to the Demand practice, because hospital IT, the data protection officer and procurement need their evidence before a tender fixes the requirements.

### How can a health software vendor reach hospital IT and procurement?

In a hospital, the clinician who wants a product rarely controls the decision, because IT, the data protection officer and procurement each review it for their own reasons. Torke's Demand practice covers the whole buying group at the hospitals on an agreed list, and the Fix stage builds the pages each reviewer reads before speaking to sales.

### Can marketing claims change how my health software is classified?

Under the EU's guidance on medical device software, a device's intended purpose includes what the manufacturer says in promotional or sales materials, so an ad can contradict the regulatory file a digital health company signed off. Torke Engine's campaigns on approved claims module checks every line of an ad, newsletter or page against the approved facts and word rules before it can be exported.

### How long is the sales cycle for digital health companies selling to hospitals?

Often six months to more than a year. In a survey of 100 hospital executives, over half said finalising contracting alone takes more than three months and 35 percent said more than half a year, and public hospitals above the procurement thresholds must run a published tender.

### Do hospitals in Switzerland have to put software purchases out to tender?

A hospital that counts as a public contracting authority must publish contracts above the thresholds, usually on simap. Under the intercantonal rules an open or selective procedure applies from CHF 250,000 for supplies and services.

## Read next on Digital Health

Articles that go deeper on what stalls deals in this market, and the industries whose buyers behave the same way.

### The week something changed

In a category with no search volume, the only reliable opening is reaching an account inside the window a dated, public event created.

[Read the article, 4 minutes](https://torke.tech/blog/the-week-something-changed)

### What counts as a qualified lead

Most arguments between marketing and sales about pipeline are arguments about a definition nobody wrote down. Five recorded facts settle them before they start.

[Read the article, 5 minutes](https://torke.tech/blog/what-counts-as-a-qualified-lead)

### Your market is closer to 400 accounts

Most demand programs for deep-tech companies are sized for a market that never existed, and the fix starts with counting the real account list.

[Read the article, 4 minutes](https://torke.tech/blog/addressable-market-400-accounts)

### Medtech

Surgical systems, implants, diagnostic devices and wearables sold to hospitals, clinics and labs, where a clinician champions the device and a committee or tender decides.

[How we work in Medtech](https://torke.tech/industries/medtech)

### Pharma & Life Sciences

Development and manufacturing services, clinical research and lab tools sold to biotech and pharma companies, where the program lead and quality assurance decide together.

[How we work in Pharma & Life Sciences](https://torke.tech/industries/pharma-and-life-sciences)

### Software & AI

B2B software, AI products and data platforms sold to mid-sized and large companies, where a team adopts the product and security, legal and procurement decide the contract.

[How we work in Software & AI](https://torke.tech/industries/software-and-ai)

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