Health Systems in Transition - Hungary - World Health Organization ...

Health systems in transition Hungary 41
technology in health investments and reforms in last decades, there are still
several problems in the Hungarian health information system, including serious
concerns about data quality; a lack of trustworthy and up-to-date master
databases; sluggish data delivery, outdated patient record structure and data
collection requirements; and data security problems, especially in sharing
patient information among providers (Ministry of National Resources, 2010).
To provide patients, health professionals and the wider public with health
care information, the State Secretariat for Healthcare developed an internet and
call centre-based health information service called Dr. Info (www.dr.info.hu).
The service is available around the clock and provides information on a wide
variety of topics, including the availability of health care providers (addresses,
phone numbers, opening hours) and of civil organizations related to health
care; medicines, including price, reimbursement, prescription information; the
structure, availability and function of the health care system (summaries of laws
and regulations); electronic medical books and dictionaries with descriptions
of illnesses; quality indicators of hospitals; general information about lab tests;
and an International Classification of Diseases code interpreter.
2.7.2 HTA
HTAs have gradually begun to take root in the Hungarian health care
system. Starting in the late 1990s, cost–effectiveness increasingly came to be
recognized as an important criterion in reaching resource allocation decisions,
and it was first made into an obligatory criterion in purchasing decisions in
the case of pharmaceuticals (2000/7, 2001/3). In 2002 the Ministry of Health 6
issued a national guideline on preparing economic evaluation of health care
interventions (2002/12). The guideline provides a detailed description of the
structure and content of a model economic evaluation, including certain
country-specific parameters. This was a significant step towards a systematic
application of economic evaluation to support decision-making on services
covered by the HIF.
The Hungarian Health Economics Association was created in 2003 by health
economists and academic health professionals, but it now has an extensive
membership, including experts from the public and the business sector
as well as from research and academic institutions dealing with HTA. The
real breakthrough in the field of HTAs, however, started in 2004, when the
government was obliged by EU law to incorporate Directive 89/105/EC into
national legislation. The Directive stipulates that the NHIFA must decide on
6 As of 2010 called the State Secretariat for Healthcare within the Ministry of National Resources.