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.

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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.

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There is no e-health, nor adequate traditional healthcare strategy

The state telemedicine system’s realisation is hindered by the fact that the government does not have a proper development strategy for it. Unfortunately, the situation is similar to general healthcare as well. Hungary’s Digital Health Industry Development Strategy (DEFS) is being prepared, but not by the health administration or by the Ministry of Innovation, but within the framework of the Digital Welfare Program (Digitális Jólét Program). The creation of the strategy was ordered by a 2017 government decree but has not yet been completed. In 2018, the Heim Pál Foundation made a contract with the Digital Welfare Non-profit (Digitális Jólét Nkft) for HUF 28 million to prepare a study in order to establish the strategy.

Digital development is a flourishing field, and Hungarian healthcare needs it as well.

Here are some points from a 2017 presentation by the Heim Pál Foundation:

• The estimated cost of the years of deteriorating health due to improper living is 20% of the GDP, which is close to HUF 5,500 billion a year in Hungary.
• Expenditure on the treatment of preventable diseases consumes more than HUF 1,000 billion a year.
• Unnecessary doctor-patient appointments that could be conducted via digital means is taking up approximately HUF 150 billion.
• There is little use made of the wealth of fitness, wellness, and health data generated by the population. There is no systematic data processing, proper disease prediction, and the improvement of the quality of physician-patient relationships through the processing of tools, applications, and data is also lacking.
• The global digital health industry is growing at a rate of 10% each year, exceeding $200 billion, in which Hungary has no role to play.

The legislators also have a role to play in this, as the Hungarian legal system is not familiar with the concept. The definitions of telemedicine and telediagnosis are not included in the Health Act.

According to the data of the WHO, the legislation on the operating conditions of e-health services is largely missing – at the same time, however, Hungary is doing well with laws related to data protection.

Source: Hvg.hu