Croatia can be proud of high-quality individual digital and IT solutions in its healthcare system, but it lacks a bridge that will combine them into one functional digital whole, says the executive director of the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Croatia.

The AmCham on Wednesday organised a business breakfast on the digital transformation of the Croatian healthcare system, discussing new healthcare technologies and healthcare data management.

AmCham executive director Andrea Doko Jelusic said that one of the biggest challenges would be to harmonise the system by upgrading the e-Health system. She said it was encouraging that the relevant authorities were aware of the need for an upgrade and to apply for EU funding for this purpose.

The director general of the AbbVie company, Ljubisa Mitof-Visurski, said that the implementation of the digitalisation of the healthcare system and health institutions and services did not reflect Croatia’s potential.

“The digitalisation of the healthcare system is inevitable, but the impression is that the improvements made so far, unfortunately, are not the result of systematisation and structuring, but were mostly prompted by the pandemic and the entire public health situation,” he said.

Also discussed was the use of digital tools and solutions in the healthcare system, registers of treatment outcomes, and the need to improve service quality and ensure a personalised approach to medical treatment.

Representatives of the Health Ministry and the Croatian Health Insurance Fund said that the national healthcare development strategy listed digitalisation of the healthcare system and health services as one of the priorities.

Mark J. Davis, the director general of the Roche Croatia company, said that the use of secondary data would help achieve better treatment outcomes and a more cost-effective healthcare system.