Press Release: Last week, on the occasion of the professional conference – Healthcare 2023 – the expected study was published in Prague on the topic: Is the Czech Republic ready for the digitization of the Czech healthcare system.
The study was prepared by KPMG Česká republika, s.r.o. for the Alliance for Telemedicine and Digitization of Healthcare and Social Services, zs. (ATDZ) in the period between February and September 2022.
The aim of the study was:
- Map the current state of digitization of healthcare in the Czech Republic
- Processing of foreign case studies
- Identify the main barriers to the development of eHealth
- To identify opportunities and threats for the further development of digitization
According to the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), the Czech Republic lags behind in the overall state of digitization, both from the point of view of the 2021 score and from the point of view of the overall growth of the index value over time. The results of the study show that the Czech Republic is struggling with insufficient legislative regulation and non-conceptual management by the state. Sub-projects of digitization are rather created in isolation as part of private initiatives, or in cooperation with cities or regions. The national electrification strategy does not have a clearly defined implementation structure and remains unfulfilled. "The Czech Republic is still far behind in the field of digitization of our healthcare compared to other and especially Western European countries. Denmark, which is the European digital champion, should be an example for us," says Jiří Horecký, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Alliance for Telemedicine and Digitization of Healthcare and Social Services.
Digitization brings indisputable benefits to all actors of the healthcare system (savings, improvement and efficiency of care, higher prevention, higher availability of information, supervision of own data, etc.). State administration bodies should manage and present the benefits of digitization in a systematic and comprehensible manner together with informaceme about the specific goals and milestones of the procedure, which he sets in cooperation with relevant stakeholders. Inadequate conceptual management in this area can, especially at this time, lead to non-exhaustion or inefficient use of the National Recovery Plan or insufficient readiness of the Czech Republic to implement the requirements resulting from the regulation on the European Health Data Area (EHDS). "I am very happy that the KPMG study initiated by ATDZ showed a change in the perception of digital medicine and above all the fact that we already have a large number of teams – from small startups to university units that implement telemedicine in regular clinical practice for the benefit of our patients. For me personally, it is a significant impulse for the state, healthcare and legislation to move in the right direction as quickly as possible in this area," said prof. Miloš Táborský, MD, Ph.D., FESC, FACC, MBA Past President and Executive Director of the Czech Society of Cardiology Head of Department of Internal Medicine I – Cardiology Olomouc University Hospital.
“Digital health and care refers to tools and services that use information and communication technologies to improve the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, monitoring and management of health-related problems and to monitor and manage lifestyle habits that affect health. Digital health and care is innovative and can improve access to and quality of care, as well as increase the overall efficiency of healthcare.” (EU Definition)
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