Hungarian national telemedicine could launch soon

The testing of a Hungarian national telemedicine service will soon launch, involving 300 doctors and 15,000 patients. Unfortunately, according to the original plans, these tests should have been conducted as early as March 2020.

Due to the coronavirus epidemic, the treatment of non-emergency patients in Hungary was severely reduced. In reality, this led to the beginning of an improvised telemedicine service from one day to the next. Doctors tried to communicate with their patients through several different, non-standardised channels to try and fulfil their tasks. However, a full-fledged public telemedicine service may soon launch in Hungary. The Hungarian National Healthcare Services Centre signed the contract for the test-launch of the system, which has been under development for a couple of years. The tender was won by a consortium of two private healthcare companies, PSO Group and Junimed (healthcare service provider) for HUF 317.3 million, Hvg reported.

Data is the future of healthcare as well

The infrastructure and test subjects for the trial of the public telemedicine service are provided by the Hungarian National Healthcare Services Centre. The winning consortium is responsible for providing the service, supporting the test participants, and collecting and processing the data. The test will include a minimum of 250 general practitioners and 50 specialists.

At least 15,000 patients will participate. Each participant will have to have at least one successful home measurement and/or teleconsultation about problems concerning endocrinology, atrial fibrillation, diabetes, dermatology, and hypertension.

In telemedicine, everything revolves around data, but in the 21st century, doctors can access said data easily and even without having to meet the patient in person. Doctors can also share data and information with one another. Patient status data can come from certified devices released by the consortium or other official sources for home use, or in a broader sense, from all the information that smart devices, such as smartphones, fitness watches, and smartwatches, gather, or what people digitally record themselves.

They have not started yet, though it should have already been finished

Despite the circumstances and previous attempts, there is no full-fledged telemedicine service in Hungary as of yet. Some private companies offer teleconsultation services. The telemedicine system of the Hungarian National Healthcare Services Centre is part of the Hungarian National eHealth Infrastructure (EESZT) launched in 2017. The Hungarian National eHealth Infrastructure already handles all data on and related to patients in public health, including electronic prescriptions, which played an important role in deciding on restrictions to slow down the coronavirus pandemic. Development related to telemedicine is implemented with EU support.

However, the commissioning of the state telemedicine system is not proceeding smoothly. As early as 2018, the Hungarian National Healthcare Services Centre announced that the trial would take place between July 2019 and March 2020. However, the Hungarian National Healthcare Services Centre was late, and so the contract was only signed with the winning consortium this year, in early April. Of course, the coronavirus outbreak may affect how the tests are conducted, and it is not clear when and to what extent the system is expected to become operational. Until the publication of the article, the Hungarian National Healthcare Services Centre has not answered the questions of Hvg.