Deputy Minister of Health Dr. Şuayıp Birinci: "The only way to manage the health economy is for everyone to take care of their own health"
An event on 'Our National Health Informatics System' was held at Üsküdar University Faculty of Medicine within the scope of University Culture course. In the online event, Deputy Minister of Health Dr. Şuayıp Birinci evaluated the point of health services in the last 20 years with the effect of digitalization with his presentation. He also made recommendations for the improvement of our first health system and said that "Currently, the 30-year costs of obesity patients in Türkiye, including indirect and indirect costs, are about 7 trillion Turkish Liras. If everyone takes more than 5,000 steps a day, the system earns close to 12,000 Turkish Liras per year. Therefore, the most important thing that can be done in this country right now is to take action.".
The event, which was moderated by Üsküdar University Faculty of Medicine Instructor Asst. Prof. Cengiz Gül, was attended by Üsküdar University Faculty of Medicine Dean Prof. Haydar Sur, instructors and students of the Faculty of Medicine. The online event titled 'Our National Health Informatics System' was held with the participation of Deputy Minister of Health Şuayıp Birinci.
Türkiye has the highest number of intensive care beds
Deputy Minister of Health Dr. Şuayıp Birinci, who started his speech by referring to the low number of hospitals and the old condition of the existing hospitals, said that "The number of our hospitals has increased by 35 percent, and the hospital age has decreased from 49 to 13. Nearly 120,000 beds have been added in the last 15 years. We have increased intensive care units in the public sector by 28 times. Türkiye is the country with the highest number of intensive care beds per population in the world. Therefore, no one has been left without a hospital bed in the pandemic.".
Our biggest tool to strengthen the system is technology
Stating that Türkiye is the country with the highest satisfaction in the world according to the money spent in the health sector, Dr. Birinci said that "This data reveals how qualified the expenditure in health is used.".
Adding that it is necessary to constantly renew the system due to the presence of ever-changing elements of the health service, Birinci stated "Expectations are also going elsewhere, however, there is one thing that has not changed; the rate of old age, chronic disease is increasing. Our biggest tool to strengthen the system is technology.".
The medication tracking system is also one of the most valuable applications in the world
Stating that 20 years ago there was a 13-fold difference in physicians compared to the population between Ağrı and Ankara, today that difference has decreased to 2 times, Dr. Şuayıp Birinci stated that such data can only be created by digitizing it. Reminding that the 'Türkiye Health Information System Action Plan' was created in 2004, Birinci said that “Although this initiative is a simple action for today, it can be considered as a document that meets the need for that day. The national health dictionary created after it is one of the most important building blocks. A system such as E-Pulse and the Central Physician Appointment System (MHRS) were established. MHRS was voted the best project in London and there is still no such big project. The medication tracking system is also one of the most valuable applications in the world. It is the only tracking system that can be used on a national basis and integrated with health systems. There are 10 thousand types of registered medication, 19 billion registered boxes. The number of daily transactions is 79 million and about 27 thousand pharmacies use this system.".
"Everyone collects health data, we collect both health and administrative information"
Deputy Minister of Health Dr. Şuayıp Birinci, who stated that the purpose of the e-pulse system, which was first launched among Istanbul hospitals and then put into use all over Türkiye, was to direct individuals to the right hospitals, said, "Every day in Istanbul, more than 500 thousand patient relatives were going out to traffic. Saying that everyone should not need to come to the central place, we struggled to ensure that they could access the relevant departments wherever they were. We have established an electronic health record system so that everyone from patients to health managers can access their own data. This is where our difference from the world emerges. Everyone collects health data, we collect both health and administrative information because we record the whole process of the data.".
"E-pulse project was shown as an example to the world"
Sharing that the information that the e-pulse system has 72 million users today, 4.9 billion entries have been made and 14.5 million organ donations have been made through the system, Birinci said that "Different systems work together. When we tell a stranger, we are faced with the question of how we achieve this. There is no another example of this in the world. Data from all health institutions can be accessed.". Stating that the e-pulse system can also be used to inform the relatives of the patients, Birinci said that "You have difficulty in explaining this to a westerner. An audience was formed to look at health data through family members. The e-pulse project was shown as an example to the world.".
"Technology touches our lives"
Stating that artificial intelligence technologies are used in the field of health, Dr. Birinci said that "Thanks to artificial intelligence, we have increased the early diagnosis rate to over 50 percent. In the past, 20 percent of women with breast cancer could be diagnosed at level 4 or 5. Now, only 1 in 200 women are diagnosed at level 4 or 5. We catch all of them much earlier. I say this to show that technology touches our lives.".
Adding that corruption is buried in history with the 'My prescription system'; violence in health can be monitored instantly with the 'white code application', and the whole process can be monitored from the time of the patient's application to the time of discharge with the 'Emergency Health Automation System', Birinci stated that "The decision support system SİNA, where the data collected with digital systems are processed and everyone can access this data within the framework of their own authority, has the highest number of users in the world and produces different reports for each individual. It is an excellent decision support system. SİNA knows how many people will die on average tomorrow. It knew it during the pandemic, and it knew the rate of intensive care treatment. It sees the risks of diseases, and according to the risk groups; what percentage of those patients will be hospitalized and what percentage will enter intensive care, and it can reveal them as data. Thanks to this data, we can take precautions in hospitals.".
"People in Türkiye are born digitally and die digitally"
Referring to the Death Notification System, Birinci said that "In the past, issues such as inheritance procedures, death report, demotion from life were dealt with when someone died. People in Türkiye are now being born digitally and dying digitally. Even from the first pregnancy test, the baby is recorded. If the baby's name is decided after birth, a report is written electronically and the Turkish ID number is transmitted to the family's mobile phone within 5 minutes.".
"Chronic diseases have reached 75 percent of SSI expenditures in terms of unit cost"
Stating that the disease management platform is a system that warns the physician who knows which diseases should be performed on which disease, Birinci said that "It is necessary to reduce the pressure on the total disease burden in Türkiye by managing chronic disease. As in the whole world, chronic diseases in Türkiye have come to 75 percent of SSI expenditures in terms of unit cost. One in two people over the age of 65 has to live as a dependent. We can see how much pressure the health care system will be under in the future and how much our own future is threatened. Therefore, what needs to be done is to take care of our own health. This is how we were able to build the technological systems that will strengthen us. Of course, much better will be done, these platforms will come to a much better point. We have followed 60 million people so far through the disease management platform. I dream of increasing the capacity of the system up to 1100 diseases, and if we do that, robots will be able to diagnose and track many of the patients. We will reduce the burden on physicians a lot.".
If everyone takes over 5,000 steps a day, the system earns 12,000 Turkish Liras a year
Currently, the 30-year costs of obesity patients in Türkiye, including indirect and indirect costs, to the state are about 7 trillion TL. Dr. Birinci said that "If everyone takes over 5 thousand steps per day, the system earns close to 12 thousand TL per year. Therefore, the most important thing that can be done in this country right now is to act. The only way for this country to manage its health economy is for everyone to take care of their own health.".
6 out of every 100 people apply to the department they should not go to
Deputy Minister of Health Dr. Şuayıp Birinci, who gave information about applications such as the HES Code application and the filiation tracking system, which were quickly put into use with the pandemic period, noted that these systems were used quickly and successfully.
"It is one of our most important projects that we value the most" said Birinci, who talked about the ‘What is My Symptom?’ project, and concluded his words as follows: "This system asks you questions like a doctor and tells you which doctor you should go to. It offers you 5 suggestions of what disease you may have. 6 out of every 100 people apply to the department they should not go to. We calculate that it can be in an average of 120-130 thousand patients. We are talking about a model that can diagnose 85 percent of those who apply to the health system. It directs patients with warnings such as call an ambulance immediately, go to the family doctor, go to this department, contact an emergency neurologist. Now we are integrating it into laboratories and turning it into an auxiliary tool for doctors and turning it into a project that will contribute to the management of the process from the moment people leave their homes by including issues such as preventing unnecessary or family doctor applications from going to the hospital, which emergency area to go to. We are talking about a model that can serve many countries in the world from Türkiye. What makes us courageous here is that in 2020, one out of every two people asked a health question online. Thus, one in two health-related people are surfing the Internet.".
The event ended with a question and answer session.
Üsküdar News Agency (ÜNA)