A State-Owned IT System for Hospitals? An IT Company Expert Sees Many Threats

The guest of the twelfth episode of the Health Market podcast "Stechtoskop" was Marcin Romanowski , President of the Management Board of Comarch Healthcare, Director of the e-Health Sector of Comarch SA and Vice President of the Cracovia Sports Club.

We asked him about a concept that is coming back like a boomerang thrown by hospital directors dissatisfied with their cooperation with IT service providers – namely, the creation of a national e-health system for all medical entities.

The arguments for such a solution include:

• eliminating problems with software interoperability from different vendors
• consistency of security standards and updates across the country,
• facilitating the implementation of legal changes,
• lower costs for facilities (because public hospitals would not have to negotiate with suppliers on their own).

"At first glance, it sounds pretty good. However, when you dig into the details and analyze it a bit, you discover a number of real risks. Some of them are more or less serious," commented Marcin Romanowski.

Our interviewee pointed out that a state-run hospital system would fail to meet the expectations of various types of facilities, from small primary care clinics to large hospitals. "We would end up with a platform that is 100% inappropriate for no one," the podcast guest said.

He added that any change to the software would have to be approved by the "official machine", which would mean that the development of e-health, instead of accelerating, could reach a crawl.

Centralization, Romanowski argues, would also pose a risk of monopoly. The company or institution that wins the tender to implement such a solution (e.g., the Ministry of Health) would gain market control for decades.

The migration of data from hospitals alone, as the Comarch representative said, would cost a fortune, take years and would require training all medical staff in the use of the new system.

Marcin Romanowski also highlighted the risk of large project failure. Centralized IT projects in government often ended in delays, budget overruns, or even complete abandonment.

The CEO of Comarch Healthcare also perceived the fact that it would be enough to "crack" just one IT system to paralyze all medical facilities in Poland as a danger.

- In the face of the growing number of cyberattacks and hybrid warfare, which is also taking place in our territory, this would be a serious strategic risk - pointed out Marcin Romanowski.

The entire interview with Marcin Romanowski can be viewed at Rynek Zdrowia.

All episodes of the "Stechtoskop" podcast are available for listening on Spotify.

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