XI annual conference traditionally organized by the Montenegrin magazine “Medical” addressing “Current Affairs in Healthcare, Medicine and Pharmacy” was held at the Hotel “Avala” in Budva from 28 to 31 March 2024.
The gathering was opened by Aleksandar Sekulić, State Secretary of the Ministry of Health of Montenegro. A round table addressing the topic “Significance of digitization of the healthcare system” was participated by MD Žanka Cerović, Chairman of the Medical Chamber of Montenegro, MD Vuk Kadić, Director General of the Health Insurance Fund of Montenegro, and MD Aleksandar Obradović, Deputy Director of the Institute for Public Health of Montenegro, and moderated by Dragana Janinović from the Ministry of Health of Montenegro. It was an excellent introduction to the first day of the conference dedicated to the healthcare system digitization.
“Digitization in Medicine: To Date Achievements and Future Perspectives”, the panel that followed gathered the representatives of the Clinical Centre of Montenegro, MD Sandra Vujović and MD/PhD Filip Vukmirović, while the company “Heliant” was represented by director Vojislav Macić. The sponsor of this panel was the pharmaceutical company “Roche” in Montenegro.
Macić highlighted the progress made in medicine in our region owing to the digitization of the healthcare system in the last 20 years. A major role in this is played by the structuring and standardization of data through EHDEN (European Health Data Network), which the company “Heliant” has been a member since 2021. The structured data that is entered into the Heliant information system enables healthcare facilities to generate databases for their users, on the basis of which business and clinical decisions can be made.
The attendees were also presented another software developed by the company “Heliant”. It is Fibi, a solution for business intelligence, which enables visual data analysis and reporting in healthcare, which contributes to more precise and efficient decision-making. The director of the company “Heliant” also emphasized the importance of the development of electronic clinical pathways, which were integrated into the patient’s electronic record in primary healthcare facilitiees, and aimed at the standardization of work processes, which further enabled the treatment process to take place in an organized manner and in the same way for each patient.
The development of mobile applications, one of the areas on which the company “Heliant” is focused, was also part of this presentation. The benefits that applications were to bring to patients were presented, such as monitoring health data, connecting with other users, education, monitoring daily activities, online consultation with doctors, etc. In addition to electronic consultations between patients and doctors, the digitization of the healthcare system enabled mutual consultations between doctors at all levels of healthcare, as well as their collaboration on digital platforms such as HERMES.
Telemedicine is an unavoidable topic within the digitization of healthcare, and MD Milena Argirović, director of the pharmaceutical company “Takeda”, spoke about its role in improving the registry for rare diseases.