At this  AmCham Business Breakfast entitled “Digital transformation of Slovenian Healthcare – How do we understand it?” the participants discussed the current state of Slovenian healthcare, one of the most important social systems,  its challenges, and also the hope brought by the announced reform, which mentions digital transformation as an essential solution. According to experts, Slovenia is well on its way to digitizing healthcare, but it needs to take a step forward. They pointed out the importance of a clearly defined vision of development and cooperation between all stakeholders who co-create the healthcare system and the matter of the citizen, which the state as a service must put in the forefront.

Our guests and speakers were: prof. dr. Bojana Beović, MD. PhD, President of the Medical Chamber; Matej Černe, PhD, Full Professor, School of Economics and Business, University of Ljubljana; Igor Lerman; Commercial Lead Croatia & Slovenia, IQVIA; Eva McLellan, General Manager, Roche Slovenija; Igor Zorko, Director, ZZI, Chairman ZIT at Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia and Chair of the Board of Slovenian Digital Coalition; Peter Pustatičnik, Head of eHealth and eCare, Telekom Slovenije. 

The expected impacts of digital transformation: for doctors and healthcare staff, for patients, and the healthcare system as a whole; the support of all stakeholders working in healthcare; different understandings of technology and good practice from abroad were the key topics on the stage of today’s AmCham Business breakfast. M.Sc. Ajša Vodnik, CEO, AmCham Slovenia Vice President, AmChams in Europe, thus introduced the importance of a culture of dialogue and the role of the business sphere as one of the crucial stakeholders that are currently excluded from the conversation: “It is important to develop a dialogue, for experts to talk and things they also put it into practice… When we talk about digital transformation, we must understand what we are talking about first.” She pointed out that dialogue must be established in the following areas: corporate governance and competent HR in healthcare, sustainable health financing, value-based healthcare and quality indicators, new technology and digitalization of the healthcare system, modern infrastructure and equipment. 

Bojana Beović, emphasized that the most significant effect of the digitization of healthcare is the quality of treatment of patients. The situation in digitization is significantly better than it was, but some problems remain. Doctors expect digitization to make their work easier and give them more time to devote to patients, but this is not the case. Technical solutions often prolong their work, as they have to take on administrative functions in addition to medical procedures, added Beović and stated: “These are the little things that take minutes, but that minute is precious.”

Despite progress, digitalization of healthcare is not yet at an optimal level. The speakers noticed that we all talk about the necessity of digitizing healthcare, but everyone expects different results and a different path. Today we also paid attention to an aspect that is often overlooked – the user experience and the user. As an example Igor Zorko singled out the Zvem application, which, in his opinion, should introduce a new feature every month to show doctors and patients that using the application is useful.

Černe mentioned three factors that are important when introducing changes and getting used to new technology: management support, education and presentation of benefits to all stakeholders: “People are at the forefront of digital transformation.”Bojana Beović also put the patient in the center when talking about data: “The big player in this story is the patient. He must be educated enough to understand this information… Patients must trust that their most intimate information is handled ethically and is not at risk.” 

The general director of Roche Slovenia, Eva McLellan, is convinced Slovenia is in the group of more advanced countries in terms of the digitization of healthcare: “Slovenia is doing reallly well with digitalization … 2 million people. It can be done! … You are not the top, but you are growing faster than others.”, She also emphasized the importance of sustainable development when it comes to digitization. Igor Zorko also indicated that Slovenians can be more optimistic, because compared to other countries, we are one of the few that have their own information solutions, but it is time to upgrade: “Someone started from 0. We work on tradition and preserve the system, but at the same time digitize it.”

Digitization of healthcare can also mean cost reduction and at the same time more personalized patient treatment, emphasized Igor Lerman; Commercial Lead Croatia & Slovenia, IQVIA.