Opinions and attitudes of experts to the digitization of the Czech healthcare: preliminary report on the implementation of the first wave of the DELPHI study

The article provides an overview of the opinions and attitudes of a selected group of experts on the introduction of electronic healthcare in the Czech healthcare system. The research used the DELPHI method, the first wave of which took place in the first quarter of this year and the second wave is planned for the second half of this year. A total of forty respondents assessed the relevance of the individual steps of electronization and digitization, as well as the obstacles that need to be overcome in the implementation of the National eHealth Strategy. Respondents consider electronic information on health promotion and prevention programs (87%) and support for chronic patients (77%) to be the most appropriate or important, while the least supported is the publication of service level assessments of providers (27%) and on-line access to documentation of the authorizing person (30%), less support is also given to the optimization of waiting times with the help of digitization (35%) and electronic consultation with a doctor (35%). Respondents see the biggest obstacles to eHealth implementation in the resistance of providers (up to 70% for some measures) and in unsatisfactory or missing legislation (up to 85% for some steps). The survey was carried out as part of the project Structural Reform Support Service (SRSS) of the European Commission at the Ministry of Health and under coordination of National eHealth Centre (NeHC).