Digital Patient Journey Management System Enters its Next Phase

The innovative web application, the first version of which was donated to the Hungarian state by the Hungarian Foundation for the Development of Personalized Healthcare (Szefa), founded by Roche Hungary, is set to be improved with the involvement of other hospitals and extended to cover more types of diseases.

The Ministry of the Interior, the National General Directorate of Hospitals (Okfő), the five hospitals concerned, and Szefa have signed cooperation agreements to facilitate the joint development of Dr. BetMen.

The web application will provide users (GPs, specialists, care managers and patients) with a treatment plan, appointment booking system and consultation facilities, making the patient journey from primary care to specialist treatments, follow-up care and analysis of therapies more predictable and traceable.

The Dr.BetMen digital patient pathway management system will offer an integrated solution that follows the patient through the entire patient pathway: enabling prevention, facilitating early admission, shortening and optimizing the efficiency of each treatment pathway and making it assessable from multiple perspectives.

Roche Hungary developed the first version of Dr.BetMen in collaboration with Bács-Kiskun County Hospital to provide a protocol-rich and personalized treatment, rehabilitation and follow-up phases of the oncology patient journey.

“One of the big advantages of the digital patient journey management system is that it helps to identify good practices in care: those that lead to better outcomes can be used to update existing procedures,” said Zsolt Horváth, chief oncologist at Bács-Kiskun County Hospital, who has been involved in the project since its launch.

Significant Advantage

The specialist sees the ability to integrate patient satisfaction into the care system as a significant advantage. At the same time, it also allows for quality assurance considerations and the introduction of performance measurement.

According to Horváth, the digital management system could play a vital role in the future of patient care in Hungary because it could reduce administrative time, improve the relationship between patient and healthcare provider, make medical work and human resource management more predictable, and make the allocation of professional resources more dynamic.

At the end of the original development period, the first official version of Dr.BetMen was delivered by Szefa to the Hungarian State and the Hungarian Federal Office for the Management of the EESzT in December 2021.

“With this donation, we committed to continue the development of the most suitable solution for the users together with our partners,” said Zsolt Molnár-Gallatz, president of the Szefa Foundation. He considers the great strength of the web application to be that users are involved in the development process and the elaboration of the operating model.

All the functional packages developed in this spirit will be handed over to the Hungarian state free of charge, following the technical and technological validation and agreement with EESzT. The cooperation agreements now concluded will create opportunities for the further development of the system, involving new institutions and fresh areas of expertise. In cooperation with the Korányi National Institute of Pulmonology, the focus will be on supporting early detection and diagnosis of lung diseases.

State Secretary for Health Péter Takács considers care management along patient pathways the basis of modern, sustainable healthcare systems and says that user-friendly digital support for patients and healthcare workers in planning and monitoring patient journeys is one of the most innovative areas of today.

“A care management service package based on such patient journeys can be effectively integrated into the EESzT, which provides a network and a basis as well as innovative functionalities, connecting healthcare actors with a very high level of security,” the state secretary adds.

Digital Development

Regarding e-health development, Hungary currently stands out in the European field, Takács says, and he insists that the sector’s leadership remains committed to the digital development of the Hungarian healthcare sector and the introduction of new, forward-looking solutions.

The renewal of healthcare, putting it on a sustainable footing and creating an efficient, quality-oriented, patient-centered system that supports prevention are among the government’s key objectives, Takács says.

“The digital health strategy goes hand-in-hand with the professional strategy of the health sector and supports the user-friendly implementation of national and EU-level professional objectives,” adds Magdolna Kádár, head of the Health Development Policy Department of the State Secretariat for Health of the Ministry of Interior.

As one of the plug-in service packages of the EESzT, Dr. BetMen offers a development process based on actual needs, with the involvement of users.

“In the digital development of healthcare, it is of paramount importance not to create duplicate systems, so Dr. BetMen will be integrated with the sectoral systems and tools that provide citizen EESzT access and digital appointment booking,” she notes.

“The integrated solution will significantly increase the quality and quantity of structured data that can be linked to patient journeys, supporting the development of data-driven healthcare and further raising the quality of patient care,” she noted.

This article was first published in the Budapest Business Journal print issue of March 8, 2024.