AN EYE OPENING BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY FOR HEALTHCARE by Prof. Dr. Stjepan Orešković
Slovenia with the greatest progress in the field of mortality, which we can influence and is “the right measure of the quality of the health system”, at the same time, we are faced with “new” problems that require a new way of thinking and a system of behaviour.
Health polemics, an event organized by the Academy of Finance in cooperation with the Vzajemna Health Insurance Company, gathered a number of experts from various segments of health in Ljubljana in early April to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the Slovenian healthcare system and look for ways to improve it.
Technological giants are rapidly developing and dictating tectonic changes and innovations for future medical treatment. There are several well-functioning health systems in the world, which can be modeled and upgraded in the direction of greater security, accessibility, confidentiality and professionalism.
Prof. Dr. Stjepan Oreskovic, president of the Council and head of the Center for the Research of Best Practice, presented the key trends in healthcare: aging population, unsustainable growth in health spending and efforts to expand equity and access to care.
He pointed out that as much as 30% of everything that is done in healthcare is ineffective. Outspoken by the audience, this argument has been based on the fact that errors are getting more expensive when we climb the list of health services, and at the same time new technologies can make many processes considerably more effective.
And precisely in connection with new technologies, he emphasized the role of technology companies in medicine, especially Google: it is very strong in the field of artificial intelligence, we have an adequate financial hinterland, an exceptional concentration of knowledge — experts and data. At the same time, Google has in the past years acquired all the key startup companies in this field and has established partnerships “with anyone that means anything in the world of health.”
Orešković particularly presented the position of Slovenia and the Slovenian health system. According to his analysis, Slovenia is in many respects among the average countries — in some areas it deviates in both good and bad terms. According to a study published in The Lancet magazine, Slovenia made the biggest leap in the field of mortality, which we can influence, between 1990 and 2015, and is “the right quality measure of the health system”.
Slovenia positively stands out, for example, in the area of neonatal mortality, the lowest in the world. However, we also have “new” problems, which, according to Oreskovic, require a new way of thinking and a system of behavior. An incredible break in behavior among older people and young people has emerged, for example, on alcohol and obesity are worse than their peers in other EU countries.
Last but not least, in order to successfully address these problems, he highlighted the excellent capacities that Slovenia has but not exploited, among them experts in the economic and medical faculties and those who work internationally.
He also presented the Medicohelath project, which is a solution for healthcare in many ways.
