Enhancing Healthcare Digital Transformation in Poland: Key Recommendations from PTI and Sano
A New Year, A New Commitment to Improving Healthcare Digitalization
As the new year begins, the Polish Information Technology Society (PTI) and Sano Centre for Computational Medicine have been working intensively on a comprehensive report aimed at optimizing the use of funds from the National Recovery Plan (KPO) for the digital transformation of Poland’s healthcare system. This insightful document will be publicly available from January 2025 on the official PTI website: https://pti.org.pl.
The report identifies critical challenges within the ongoing digital transformation, including:
- Limited time to utilize allocated funds.
- High complexity of actions and procedures.
- Diverse IT technologies and procedures.
- Cybersecurity concerns.
- Vague quality metrics for planned activities.
- Excessive focus on technological aspects over patient- and physician-centered goals.
Proposed Solution: A Comprehensive Management Model
To address these challenges, the report recommends the implementation of a comprehensive management model centered around a Portfolio/Project Management Office (PMO) established at the Ministry of Health. This office would be responsible for overseeing the entire digitalization process, defining accountability for participants, and managing IT architecture specifications.
Key Recommendations by Stakeholder Groups
The report presents tailored recommendations for three primary groups involved in the digital transformation:
1. Ministry of Health and Centrum eZdrowia:
- Foster a “no-blame” culture.
- Develop clinical registries for reliable medical data collection.
- Establish stakeholder-oriented metrics to evaluate the impact of KPO investments on digitalization goals.
- Simplify program implementation by reducing parallel hospital projects.
- Standardize management, procedural, and technological approaches for greater scalability.
- Enhance IT modernization and cybersecurity strategies.
2. Hospitals:
- Develop effective digitalization plans with resource optimization.
- Simplify technological processes while maintaining quality and scalability.
3. Medical Innovators:
- Address technological, regulatory, and operational aspects.
- Strengthen collaboration with end-users.
- Plan and streamline development processes.
Guidelines for IT Solutions
The report also outlines best practices for IT solutions, emphasizing:
- Choosing suitable IT architectures.
- Modernizing and integrating data systems.
- Creating modular, open, and interoperable applications for scalable, secure, and efficient healthcare services.
A Collaborative Effort for a Better Healthcare System
The report was developed with contributions from the Supreme Medical Chamber’s Innovator Network (NIL IN) and PAMTEC (Empowering MedTech Innovators in Central and Eastern Europe). It is based on the results of a survey conducted among 50 Polish healthcare innovators.
Read more at pti.org.pl
