This week experts from the World Health Organisation (WHO) mission visited Bratislava who focused on evaluation of information systems in relation to medical data and information. After four days, during which they met with experts of the Ministry of Health of the Slovak Republic, as well as other departments and organizations, prepared a preliminary summary of findings for Slovakia. This summary will be developed later in a detailed evaluation report, which should be available over the weeks.
Today, there is a significant increase in the mobility of people whose behaviour is also changing under the influence of modern technologies. This trend affects the increase in the risk of infectious diseases spreading, but also the emergence or return of old medical threats. The development of information systems has brought new tools to combat such threats. However, the conclusions of the WHO mission show that Slovakia is not yet making sufficient use of all the opportunities available to it.
WHO's own interest in health information systems confirms their importance in the protection of public health. Therefore, Michael Palkovič, Minister of Health, heard preliminary conclusions from experts on Friday. We collect and use data in Slovakia mainly as statistics, but not as a source of knowledge. I would therefore like to thank our WHO guests for their recommendations, which certainly show that we have a lot to catch up on. stated the Minister.
Mutual information and knowledge sharing is crucial in this area. High-quality and accurate data are an important and useful tool, for example in early anti-epidemic measures as demonstrated by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, they are also relevant in other areas, particularly in managing health care for refugees from Ukraine or in natural disasters.
WHO experts have noted that data collection is sufficient, but their use is often chaotic. Communication between individual organisations and institutions in data sharing is not clearly set, which sometimes duplicates not only processes but also results unnecessarily. We react to crises of any kind as a state only afterward, and we must create new procedures and rules. Instead, we could prepare ourselves for similar situations in advance, precisely because of past experience, for example through framework legislation.

I personally see a number of information systems used by individual healthcare providers as one of the biggest problems in the management of health data and which, moreover, are not compatible with each other. This problem was also raised by WHO colleagues," Minister Palkovič said about one of the other topics. These systems are also too complex for users, according to experts.
We also lack centralisation of data collection; their security and validation are not sufficiently addressed. This is often the case in places where they need them, but due to the lack of coordination of mechanisms, they do not reach those who really can use them adequately in setting up the health system. I believe that the WHO final report will help Slovak institutions to move where they need to be, faster than we could have done ourselves, and the health minister concluded.