(e-Health) Future Is Already Now?!

When it comes to Croatia, which has together with four countries in Europe most successfully implemented the ePrescription, the future is certainly already here – this was pointed out at the Second Regional Conference on Digital Medicine, held on April 7 in Zagreb, with distinguished participation of experts from Ericsson Nikola Tesla.

With the aging of population and the increase of costs related to new forms of medical treatment, as well as to prevention, health care across the world faces numerous challenges, especially the significant economic ones. The sustainability of the entire health care system in the European Union requires a new approach to the organization as well as the introduction of digitalization in all the segments of all the processes in health care. According to the European Commission’s Report on Health Care and Long-Term Care Systems and Fiscal Sustainability, in 2015, health care costs accounted for 8.7 percent of GDP in the EU, and by 2060, they could increase by another 45 percent. As the key solution to decreasing costs in health care, it is necessary to point out a faster digitalization of all the processes, which will enable a significantly better data analysis, more precise and secure diagnostics, development of personalized health care for each patient, and, finally, a better quality of life. These all were the topics discussed at the conference opened by Fedor Dorčić, MSc, Deputy Head of Croatian Institute for Health Insurance (HZZO), along with other topics, including the transition to performance-related pay, and the forthcoming serialization of medicines, which should as of February 9, 2019, prevent the entrance of counterfeit medicines into the legal supply chain on the EU market, increasing the security and control of medicine quality.

Despite various topics covered, however, the focus of the conference was undoubtedly on Electronic Health Record, whose implementation is a prerequisite for a better use of data in health care. The introductory speech on the advantages of Electronic Health Record gave Mario Ravić, Manager at our company responsible for mHealth solutions. He explained that Electronic Health Record, once it becomes fully implemented, would contain the entire medical history of the patient, diagnosis, therapy plans, information on vaccines and allergies, X-ray images, lab and other results; on the basis of such information, the authorized doctors will be able to make decisions on further treatment faster, easier and with more quality, even in the case of patients that cannot be contacted. On the other hand, by using the Health Portal, which is available through e-Citizens website, patients have already been enabled to include themselves more actively into the health care system.

The central event of the conference was the round table under the title “Electronic Health Record, Patient Registers”, with an active and well-noted participation of Ivan Lupić, Director of ICT for Industry and Society at Ericsson Nikola Tesla. He acknowledged that the experts from our company were focused on the requirements, defined by the profession concerned, as well as their ability to fully meet these requirements from a technological and programming point of view, as was the case with ePrescription and Central Healthcare Information System of the Republic of Croatia (CEZIH). The panel discussion addressed numerous issues related to Electronic Health Record that have yet to be dealt with; along with technological and medical aspects, it also addressed legal and legislative aspects of this complex topic. Seeing as compliments always carry the most weight when they come from an “outsider”, it is necessary to mention the appearance of Jesus del Valle from a pharmaceutical giant Bayer. During the round table, as well as in his presentation on the significance of startups in the digitalization of medicine, he pointed out that even a much larger country such as Germany has so much to learn from Croatia’s projects related to digital medicine and our examples.

Briefly told, the conference, which this year as well considered the guidelines for meeting with the upcoming challenges and further improvement of health care digitalization, once again acknowledged that the only true approach to solving the problems that the future brings, is to create appropriate solutions and answers. As early as today.

Communications Ericsson Nikola Tesla