AmCham Slovakia

AmCham Healthcare committee represents the views and position of AmCham member companies in the area of healthcare-related issues. Over the years it has become a valuable expert partner of relevant public and private stakeholders with close cooperation with other professional and analytical organizations in this field. It strives to contribute regularly to the debate on healthcare-related topics  with its members´ expertise and engage in a constructive dialogue with relevant public institutions, including the Ministry of Health of the SR, National Health Information Centre. It is active in commenting new legislation, providing recommendations by relevant position papers as well as organizing networking events including Healthy Future conferences as a part of the pre-election policy shaping initiative.

Our committee consists of numerous organizations and companies covering providers of the healthcare services, health insurance company, producers of medicines and medical devices, consultancy firms providing services in healthcare advisory, distributors of medicine, pharmacies representatives and companies focused on modern medicine and procedures.

We do communicate with public sector representatives and decision makers on regular bases in order to provide insights and expertise from day to day operations and experience of our Members. The aim is to help develop workable strategies and policies reflecting the reality, opportunities and potential of the market and its relevant stakeholders.

Priority areas of Healthcare committee contains:

1. Healthcare With A Clear Vision, Concept And Clear Rules Of The Game - Political Leadership
2. A Healthcare System With Accountability Budgeting – Predictability Revenue, Expenditure And Investment
3. A Stable Regulatory Environment - Clear Legislation Guaranteeing Predictability Of Regulation
4. Availability Of Innovation - More Modern And More Efficient Healthcare
5. Strategic Decisions And Policies Built Based On Good Quality Representative Data - The Right Decisions At The Right Time
6. Putting The Patient First - Better Management Patient Management, Patient Trust And Patient Reassurance In The Healthcare System
7. Defining Patient Entitlement - Transparency Of The System Towards Patients
8. Motivational Environment For Health Professionals - Quality Of The Working Environment And Working Conditions
9. Health And Social Integration System - Definition Of Competences And Linking The Flow Of Finance And Data
10. Efficiency And Public Control – Delivering Best Value For Money, Transparency, Measurable Objectives

The latest events in relation to the Healthcare committee

• Healthy Employees as a Fundamental Pillar of Companies’ Growth - January 22, 2025
• Investing in Healthcare and Biotech in Slovakia and CEE - January 23, 2025

Healthy Future Conference 2024

As part of the Festival of Future, AmCham Slovakia organized another impactful Healthy Future Conference. The unique mix of foreign and local experts provided insights on the future of health, main challenges, available options for progress and especially the prerequisites needed in order to jointly build future proof and sustainable healthcare. Key topics like funding of healthcare systems, related EU legislation and the patient’s pathway have been complemented by presenting benchmark of the position of the Slovak Republic with other countries covered under Healthcare readiness index, project of new hospital in Banská Bystrica or Comprehensive Cancer Center under National Cancer Institute. Further, the importance of multi-source funding into healthcare, innovations and public-private partnership were highlighted during the event.

The press release and the presentations from the event can be found here.

 

Access to and Enhancement of Health Data Usability

Members of the AmCham Healthcare committee organised an event for the respective public sector authorities responsible for health data policies and strategies. On December 13, 2023 the event “Access to and Enhancement of Health Data Usability - international experience” concerning access and use of health data approaches abroad took place. The press release can be find here.

HEALTH DATA VALUE PROJECT (2020 and onward)

Maximizing the value of health data for public good

The Health Data Value project ("Data Map") that origins since 2020 aimed at optimising data collection and use in the health sector. It was developed in response to the recurrent demand from professionals for better, higher quality and more accessible data. Its biggest success was the launch of the data reform, which will bring an effective and functional data management model to the health sector and create a single trusted source of quality and consolidated data on which we will be able to make better strategic decisions and plans for better performance, sustainability and resilience of the health system. In the final result the quality of health care delivery will be improved by health care providers, better patient engagement in the diagnostic and therapeutic process, more effective setting national health policies and to improve the quality and information professional and general public.

• The first serious attempt to propose a reform of health data management in Slovakia
• An effort to raise the urgency of the need for quality, accessible and timely data and change the way we view the value of quality data in healthcare
• A plan that developed proposals for regulatory actions, policies and strategies to enable responsible sharing and use of health data
• Defines principles and rules for working with health data

Project objectives

• Mapping all data streams on population health, that are currently collected and analyse their quality, availability, use or duplication in the output excel file
• Verification of key reports with data users such as professional societies, health insurance companies and state/national institutions and describe key weaknesses and room for improvement
• Describe legislative and procedural proposals to improve data flows in healthcare in Slovakia and develop proposals for solutions for four specific areas i)data management, ii) data hub, iii) national oncology registry, iv) amendment 153/2013 in the context of the forthcoming EU EHDS regulation

More about the project can be found in this brochure (in Slovak only).

Health Data Value Project Conference

On October 6, 2022 the Health Data Value Project Conference took place and introduce the “Health Data Value project” as the first serious proposal of healthcare data reform in Slovakia. Main purpose is to unlock the power of data to improve patient care, to make more efficient health system and boost innovation in medical research.

Health Data Value Project has been led by joint effort of the Ministry of Health of the Slovak Republic, National Health Information Center and the American Chamber of Commerce in the Slovak Republic.

The Health Data Value conference represented an important milestone for AmCham’s Healthcare Committee as well as all the partners who shared their expertise from various fields in a common mission to make better use of data in healthcare. After two and a half years the initiative produced a complex analysis and a set of recommendations, which should slowly be implemented.

The report from the Conference can be found here.

Other events related to the health data agenda

On September 12, 2024, the workshop “Governance of Health Data - How to Utilize Their Value and Potential?” has been held as a Topical Focus Event of the AmCham Festival of Future. The workshop was led by the OECD senior economic expert Mr. Eric Sutherland. During the event, practical approaches to policy for the digitalisation of health towards person-centred and integrated learning health systems have been explored and discussed among the public sector, business and other stakeholders’ representatives.

In relation to health data agenda, see also the video and press report of the webinar event “Access to and Enhancement of Health Data Usability“from December 13, 2023. The aim of event was to enable experience sharing from countries with matured health data system (Denmark and Finland) to the relevant Slovak government institutions and relevant members of AmCham Healthcare committee. The scope is to provide new perspectives on access to health data and health data usability for secondary use while meeting security and other relevant standards within the EU territory.