The new dataozdravi.cz portal helps improve the health of Czechs

Do you want to know what affects your health? Do you make decisions based on data? You can find information and data on health and healthcare trends on the newly launched dataozdravi.cz website. It is the brainchild of the Minister of Health platform, which aims to provide the public with in-depth data on disease prevention and treatment and thus motivate people to take better care of themselves.

Did you know that every single cigarette you do not smoke can extend your quality of life in health by 15 minutes? Giving up one small beer means an extra 26 minutes of quality of life. This and similar data on health trends is available on dataozdravi.cz, which was launched at the end of October and jointly developed by the Minister of Health and the consultancy Deloitte.

"The website concentrates available data on public health in the Czech Republic in a European and global context. At the same time, it offers analysis and interpretation of the data from top expertise and strictly adheres to evidence-based principles. We decided to go down the path of the so-called determinants of health, i.e., to find out what has the biggest impact on our health and to explore it. Subsequently, we want to use data analysis and analysis of best practices from abroad to show the Czech healthcare system a data-based path with concrete steps that will lead to its feasible modernisation with an emphasis on digitalisation and efficiency," says Kateřina Hellebrandová, Director of the Minister of health think tank.

The fact that the Czech Republic has long needed a similar data website is evident from health statistics. The average Czech lives less than 62 years in good health, but the average healthy life expectancy in Sweden, for example, is 72 years. The difference of ten years is a huge gap that the domestic healthcare system should try to erase. According to statistics, the Czech healthcare system is not completely miserable —the Institute of Health Information and Statistics (IHIS) stated that there are 42,000 doctors in the Czech Republic, which means 4.2 doctors per 1,000 inhabitants. Within the OECD, we are slightly above average. However, Czechs visit the doctor more often than the EU average. While a Czech visits a doctor's office 8.2 times a year, the European average is around 6.7 visits per year. In the future, however, Czechs will require much more healthcare. According to the Czech Statistical Office, the number of seniors in the Czech Republic will increase by more than half to 3.076 million by 2050. But to ensure that Czech doctors have enough time for their patients, they must move into the digital era. The European Commission is also pushing for digitalisation in the next five years, when its regulation on electronic health records is due to come into force.

"The Czech healthcare system lacks vision. And even more so, it lacks a data knowledge base, as evidenced by the way public health was managed during the COVID-19 pandemic. But the problem is many times deeper," says Tomáš Šebek, founder of the Minister of Health, adding: "With the Health Data Project, we want to partially fill this gap and also point out blind spots and work to correct them. Our goal is to achieve a change in the current practice of public health management relying on impressions or one-off and laborious ad hoc measures instead of qualified data."

What will extend life?

The dataozdravi.cz website already offers a wide range of articles and infographics and will be updated regularly with new information and analysis from the health sector. While it now provides data on the health risks of drinking alcohol, smoking and the impact of sugar and sugary drinks, it will gradually add information on how health is affected by exercise, getting enough sleep, sexual activity and health literacy levels. In addition to health information, readers will also find infographics on the role of the state in healthcare and the importance of social and environmental factors in a healthy lifestyle. The goal of the portal's founders is to extend the life expectancy of Czechs by five years by 2030.

"Czechs spend an unnecessarily large part of their lives in illness. We enter retirement sick, unable to enjoy the autumn of life to the fullest. In the context of an ageing population and retirement, this is also a ticking economic problem that will soon affect employers and the state. According to our analyses, our habits and lifestyle are much more important, influencing up to 35% of our health. The other 22% are socio-economic aspects, i.e. our employment, education, the quality of interpersonal relationships, our culture or traditions. That is, our lifestyle, habits, employment or education. We can largely influence all this through our choices. Our body stores everything, and although at thirty or forty we still feel immortal, after fifty at the latest, we get the bill. Unknowingly, we tend to ignore the importance of all forms of prevention," Hellebrandová points out.

Deloitte, a consultancy company that has supported the Minister of Health since its inception in 2021, is a partner in the Data on Health project. Deloitte was part of the web design processes and data visualisation, and provided consultation on the strategic direction of the portal. "They provided support and background at a time when we had nothing more than an idea and a vision," says Hellebrandová. Deloitte’s view is that to improve the health of the Czech people and the healthcare system as a whole, it is first necessary to understand things well. "And data is a key tool for understanding the situation. It shows us, for example, which determinants have the biggest impact on our health, and also compares that impact with the amount of money spent by the government. Based on this data, it then becomes very clear where we as a society should focus our attention to improve health in the Czech Republic," says Tervel Šopov, AI and data strategist at Deloitte. It is also important that representatives of the healthcare sector and businesses, as well as patients themselves, are working together within the initiative.

"And data is a key tool for understanding the situation. It shows us, for example, which determinants have the biggest impact on our health, and also compares that impact with the amount of money spent by the government. Based on this data, it then becomes very clear where we as a society should focus our attention to improve health in the Czech Republic," says Tervel Šopov, AI and data strategist at Deloitte. It is also important that representatives of the healthcare sector and businesses, as well as patients themselves, are working together within the initiative.

"Using and working with data can have a major impact on preventing disease and reducing the cost of expensive care, and in turn lead to longer and healthier lives. That's why this initiative makes a lot of sense to us," explains Marek Fořt, life sciences and health care lead at Deloitte.