Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Eurasia Health Informatics and Technologies Conference and Fair started in Antalya. The opening ceremony was attended by Deputy Ministers of Health Dr. Şuayip Birinci and Assoc. Prof. Tolga Tolunay.
In his statement, Deputy Minister Dr. Birinci said that digital hospital, e-Health, smart systems and technologies in health, artificial intelligence and advanced applications will be discussed at the congress.
Stating that the success of digital transformation in health and the culture of managing with information and informatics has brought Türkiye to a role model position, Dr. Birinci noted that in the last 20 years, access to health and qualified service capacities have reached a level that is higher than many countries, competing with the developed countries in the world.
“We increased our total number of beds by 48 percent and the number of intensive care beds more than 20 times. In fact, during the Covid-19 period, we put more intensive care beds into service in the first 6 months of the epidemic than many countries close to our scale. In maternal and infant mortality rate, which is one of the most important indicators of development in the world, we have succeeded in reaching the levels that countries of similar scale can reach in 30 years, in less than 10 years. This understanding, which puts the patient at the center, is one of the most important indicators of how well we are doing considering the 8 percent increase in the average life expectancy of our citizens.” said Dr. Birinci about the recent developments.
Emphasizing that the young population is decreasing and the elderly population is increasing in Türkiye, Dr. Birinci said, "When this picture is considered in terms of health profile, health economy and total job loss, it is an important economic burden. Elderly population is expected to increase from 9.7 percent in 2018 to 20.1% in 2050. The population over the age of 80 is expected to increase from 2.1 percent in 2019 to 5.4 percent in 2050. Considering that the world is aging, it will lead to a paradigm shift in healthcare systems. It is clear that new perspectives are needed.”
Saying that technology will pave the way and facilitate the process in solving such problems in the world, Dr. Birinci emphasized that digitalization in health services, more investment in medical technology, IOT, mobile health, chronic patient follow-up and the maturation of the related ecosystem and the expectation of digital innovation based on simplification are the most popular topics in the world.
Pointing out that access to health services has become easier with the e-Nabız personal health system and it is shown as an exemplary project in the world, Deputy Minister added:
“With the systems and applications developed by our engineers, Turkey has become one of the countries that shape the future of digital health in the world. I would like to state that we are one of the countries with the highest increase in the demand for electronic media health information since 2010, according to OECD data, and at the same time, according to the reports of the European Commission, we are the first in Europe in terms of digitalization in health services compared to the population. In terms of its scope, Türkiye is the country with the highest health digitalization index in the world. We are in the position of super power in digitalization in health. These rates show how fast our nation's integration into the digital transformation in health is.
"We are no longer digitizing city hospitals and hospitals in our country, on the contrary, we are building digital living centers. It should be the common goal of all of us to see this digitalization move that we have created in the field of health gets stronger day by day, and to open the door to innovations so that both the service recipient and the service provider can benefit more from this process.” said Dr. Birinci.
The conference and fair will end on 12 November.
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