- Funding Programme
- Year
- 2023
Towards a semantically interoperable health system in Hungary
The project "Towards a semantically interoperable health system in Hungary" aimed to significantly enhance semantic interoperability within Hungary's healthcare system, eventually extending it to various healthcare subsystems over the medium- to long-term. This project sought to enhance institutional capacity to develop the institutional and methodological foundations for a National eHealth Semantic Interoperability Framework.
Context
The project focused on enhancing the digitalisation of Hungary's healthcare system. Key challenges included poor data quality, lack of standardization, and inadequate semantic interoperability. The EU's eHealth Digital Service Infrastructure (eHDSI) promotes secure cross-border health data sharing, emphasizing semantic interoperability via knowledge representation technologies. Hungary's National eHealth Infrastructure (EESZT) provided technical but not semantic interoperability, hindered by regulatory gaps and outdated systems. Addressing these issues requires improved data quality, the use of standard terminologies like LOINC and ICD-11, and better regulatory frameworks to boost competitiveness. At European level, the project has a direct link with the European Health Data Space.
Support delivered
Technical support was provided to the Ministry of Interior in Hungary by an expert team, in coordination with the Directorate-General for Structural Reform Support of the European Commission and funding via the Technical Support Instrument. The project delivered:
- General requirements for a semantic interoperability framework
- Mapping of requirements for European and other applicable international legislation
- Mapping of the AS-IS situation and good practices internationally
- Implementation proposal, roadmap and action plan which covered the legal, organisational (governance), operational and digital aspects
Workshop on the implementation of the new semantic interoperability framework and sectorial specifications
Results achieved
The project achieved several tangible results, including:
- Underlining the importance of semantic interoperability
- Documenting European Best Practices
- Providing guidance for Legislation
- Providing the foundation for Semantic Institutional Framework
The expected result of the project is the establishment of an operational semantic interoperability framework and an independent semantic competency for coordination within Hungary's healthcare sector. The necessary governmental decisions would set the foundation for an independent coordinating body tasked with overseeing semantic interoperability efforts. This would allow Hungary to advance its healthcare system's data integration capabilities, promoting consistency and efficiency in medical information exchange.
More about the project
You can read the documents related to the project here: