Hungary

Since launching an electronic patient record in 2017, Hungary’s efforts to further digitize the healthcare system were spurred in part – as in many countries – by the COVID-19 pandemic. In April 2023, Dr Péter Takács, Hungary’s State Secretary for Health, made strengthening the country’s health resources, infrastructure and delivery, harnessing technology and innovation to better serve its population, and nurturing its health and care workforce its main priorities.

Other notable activities supporting Hungary’s digital health advancement include a recent study where Hungarian researchers mapped more than 6,000 in-patient and outpatient procedure codes to SNOMED CT, as part of the European Health Data Evidence Network (EHDEN) project. The EHDEN project’s goals are to reduce the time needed to provide answers in real world health research by developing the required infrastructure in a federated network at scale across Europe, collaboration on research methodologies, and education in an open science collaboration.

Hungary is also active in cross-border research and data-sharing initiatives, according to a country profile gathered as part of Towards European Health Data Space (TEHDAS). TEHDAS, whose purpose is to help Member States and the Commission to develop concepts and guidelines for the governing, usage and sharing of health data for secondary purposes, is cited as a concrete tool to develop the European Health Data Space and access to health data for secondary uses such as research, innovation and policy-making.

Also noted in the profile is Hungary’s strategic investments in data-driven tools and artificial intelligence, as well as innovative pilot projects building the technical infrastructure for federated analysis. Country objectives also include development of a separate infrastructure for the secondary use of health data.