“The data is useless.” Dr. Gawrońska with the condition of digitization in healthcare

We boast that we are the fifth country in Europe in terms of digitization of health protection, but from a practical point of view, these data are useless or used fragmentary – Dr. Anna Gawrońska, an expert in the flow of medical products, told PAP.

At the end of the April Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced about 120 laws as part of deregulation. There are plans to create an application for a public health care system in which the patient will be able to sign up for a doctor and cancel a visit. Patients would receive SMSs with reminders of the visit and the possibility of canceling it.

Gawrońska noticed that electronic registration (e-registration) assumes the use of data from various medical facilities. She emphasized that these data would have to be standardized, because e-registration is a tool in which the data is updated, e.g. with a free date when the patient cancels the visit.

The expert said that even if a given medical facility digitizes data, she does not exchange data with other facilities. “There is no data exchange between different systems. Either they are reported fragmentary to P1 (e -health system), or there are medical facilities that do not fulfill this obligation at all. We boast that we are the fifth country in Europe in terms of digitization of health protection, but from a practical, utility point of view.

She noted that doctors emphasize that they have a big problem to consult the results of a doctor from another hospital. Gawrońska said that medics often cannot send them because of the file size and the need to encrypt this data. “In practice, data exchange does not work,” she added.

The Ministry of Health announces the introduction of central electronic registration. Currently, a pilot is underway, in which you can register electronically for free cytology, mammography or first visit to a cardiologist. Selected medical facilities take part in the pilot. Central e-registration can be used via the patient's online account or in the Mojeikp application.

According to the European Commission report “Digital Decade 2024: Examination of the e-Zdrowia indicator”, Poland is among the five European Union countries that provide citizens with access to e-health data in the most complete way. Belgium (100 percent) comes first, and on subsequent dishes (98 percent), Estonia (98 percent), Lithuania (95 %) and Poland (90 percent). (PAP)

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