Bari hospital and Edison Next present digital platform to link building and energy data

Policlinico di Bari and Edison Next have presented eCore, a digital platform intended to connect hospital building information, maintenance, energy use and space management. The hospital introduced the project at the Forum PA Sanità in Rome on 22 October; Edison published details on 23 October. The first phase applies to the Asclepios pavilion, with a planned gradual extension to other buildings and the children’s hospital Giovanni XXIII.

The project began with laser scanning to create a building information model using BIM methodology. The first model covers Asclepios, a pavilion of about 49,000 square metres across eight levels. The digital representation links physical building elements to their locations, technical characteristics and maintenance information. The platform connects this model to the hospital’s FM Portal, its existing system for maintenance management.

Using QR codes or NFC tags to identify rooms, hospital staff can retrieve available building information, record work performed and update the property database. Edison Next and the hospital say this is intended to improve traceability of maintenance activity and keep building records current. The platform connects data about infrastructure with field interventions, allowing maintenance histories to be considered alongside technical information about hospital spaces and equipment.

The broader system is designed to connect monitoring of energy consumption and indoor microclimate with building operations. Edison Next says eCore can integrate energy-management systems, help identify anomalies and support planning for maintenance and equipment renewal. Hospital managers said that better information about spaces could inform operational reorganization, while links to cost-control tools could make technical and energy expenses more visible when planning investments.

The platform sits within a wider integrated technology and energy-services contract between Edison Next and the hospital. That programme includes management and maintenance of technical systems and an energy and infrastructure upgrade plan. The release points to the recently inaugurated trigeneration plant, which is sized to cover 40% of annual electricity needs, 50% of winter thermal demand and one-third of summer cooling demand. These are design coverage shares, not measured savings reported for eCore.

Other listed work includes a trigeneration plant for the Giovanni XXIII children’s hospital, refurbishment of 16 medium-voltage electrical substations and two photovoltaic systems with combined capacity of 150 kilowatts. The eCore rollout is expected to extend beyond Asclepios to other hospital pavilions and Giovanni XXIII, covering more than 320,000 square metres in total. The company release describes this as a progressive expansion, not a completed deployment across the full estate.

The planned use of building data is operational: linking maintenance records to asset information, following contractual service levels and scheduling replacements based on equipment condition. That may help facilities teams coordinate work in complex clinical buildings. The release does not provide baseline energy consumption, measured reductions, maintenance-response times or a quantified impact on patient care. Hospital continuity is the stated aim, not a measured outcome in the announcement.

eCore combines a digital building model with maintenance and energy-management data at a hospital campus. The initial phase creates a detailed model of Asclepios and connects it to existing FM workflows; the next phase is extension to additional buildings. Its value will depend on the quality and updating of records, integration with hospital operations and the staged rollout. The source gives the project scope and equipment figures but no implementation budget or completion date for the full campus.