Małgorzata Bogusz, President of the Institute for the Development of Social Affairs and member of the European Economic and Social Committee, emphasized that the presidency does not refer to current legislative processes, but digitalization will be one of the key areas during Poland’s presidency of the EU Council.
During our presidency, the project of the European Health Data Space in the area of digitalization, mainly of health care, will be discussed and finalized.
Project of the European Health Data Space
Also Marta Musidłowska from the Catholic University of Leuven also commented on the issue of the European Health Data Space. As she pointed out, despite two years having passed since the publication of the European Health Data Space project, two voices are still heard in the general debate.
“The first voice heralds improvement in all areas of health care, in particular in the context of faster and better access to electronic health data for public authorities, or improving the availability and quantity of data for conducting scientific research and developing innovations, including artificial intelligence. The situation of patients, who are to be the main beneficiaries of the development of new technologies, the availability of medicines and the broadly understood general digitalization in medicine, are also expected to improve.”
Marta Musidłowska also emphasized that, on the other hand, there are concerns arising from the lack of trust in the current legislative processes and activities of public authorities regarding data sharing.
“The European Health Data Space is a transnational project introducing significant changes in the health care systems of the EU member states. Doctors are anxious about the excess of new administrative obligations related to the collection of data. Private companies are concerned about their market position and the requirement to disclose their data, possibly including their business secrets. Also patients fear that their data will be accessible to everyone and, therefore, the most intimate aspects of their health and lives will be exposed.”
She added that we should now focus on a constructive discussion on how to prepare, so that the European Health Data Space can bring the greatest benefits at the EU and national levels.
Digitization – what we can be proud of
According to experts participating in the debate, Poland is a country that can share its experiences in the field of digitization of health care during the presidency of the EU Council.
“Poland is fifth in the EU in terms of the digital maturity of our solutions – we have the Online Patient’s Account, e-prescriptions, e-referrals and obligations regarding electronic medical records. Research on the level of computerization published by the e-Health Center shows that approximately 80% of medical entities in Poland have implemented medical documentation in electronic form, either in whole or in part,” commented doctor Paweł Kaźmierczyk, leader of the Working Group for Medical Data of the Innovation Network of the Supreme Medical Council.
Professor Ryszard Piotrowicz from the Committee of Clinical Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Committee for e-Health, Telemedicine and Artificial Intelligence of the Polish Society of Cardiology also emphasized that Poland can boast of unique solutions in the field of telemedicine. The problem around the world is the growing epidemic of heart failure – currently there are approximately 12 million patients with this disease in Europe, of which approximately one and a half million live in Poland. It is the most common and costly cause of hospitalization, and 5-year survival is lower than survival in the worst cancers, such as lung cancer.
“Only a dozen or so percent of patients in Europe have a chance for cardiac rehabilitation. The answer to this problem is rehabilitation at home and the use of telemedicine. In all of Europe, only Poland did it – we are the first country in the world to finance hybrid rehabilitation. This allows us to rehabilitate a patient who is anywhere in the world.”
What else needs improvement?
Doctor Małgorzata Gałązka-Sobotka, dean of the Postgraduate Education Center and director of the Institute of Health Care Management at Lazarski University, drew attention to aspects of the digitization of health care in Poland that still require improvement.
“Currently, what worries me most is the lack of interoperability of internal systems and the lack of data that would allow for drawing correct conclusions. An example is the National HPV Vaccination Program. We have a very good dashboard, updated weekly. We can observe the number of children vaccinated with the first and second doses. However, its greatest weakness is that it covers only vaccination coverage at the program level; it does not include all children who are vaccinated privately, and there are a lot of such children. It also completely ignores thousands of children vaccinated under local government programs.”
The lack of complete data may lead to false conclusions based on which wrong decisions will be made.
“I hope that we will be able to mobilize internally to integrate primary data when implementing legal solutions related to European Health Data Space, but also during the presidency. If we do not do this, we will not be able to draw correct conclusions with respect to one of the most important programs included in the National Oncology Strategy,” she added.
Also doctor Piotr Samel-Kowalik drew attention to the importance of appropriate and up-to-date data in the decision-making process.
“If we have data that lag behind the decision which is made here and now, and due to the dynamic changes in the world around us, then our decisions will not be right.”
Paweł Łangowski, Chair of the Health Protection Committee at Services of General Interest Europe, also commented on the challenge in the context of reporting medical data.
“The hope that the European Health Data Space will bring us revolutionary solutions will be futile because there will be no data. We will not have information about patients’ primary diseases because no one reports them and there is no one to blame for the situation. Until we face this challenge and solve this problem, I think the discussion about European Health Data Space will be irrelevant.”
Doctor Tomasz Imiela, member of the District Medical Council in Warsaw, emphasized that the digitization of health care and related regulations cannot limit anyone’s access to health care and medical assistance.
“If, at some point, we make access to certain services dependent on digital services, our access to the patient may be limited. Therefore, it is very important that representatives of patient organizations are present at every stage when working on new regulations, because doctors, scientists and industry have their own interests.”
Justyna Mieszalska, President of the Medical University of Warsaw’s Medical Center, also drew attention to the aspect of access to digital tools.
“There are people in society who are very good at using technological innovations, but we also have people over 65 years of age who are, to some extent, excluded from many benefits, for example the Online Patient’s Account service – the flagship project of the National Health Fund and the Ministry of Health, which is not particularly popular among seniors. According to the “PolSenior2” study, which covers the years 2016-2020, fewer than 20% of people over 80 years of age want to learn how to use a computer or smartphone.”
Source: IRSS
