Government funding of HUF 6bn and a support of HUF 5bn by General Electric provide the basis for establishing a world class healthcare programme in Hungary. Hungarian experts are to develop a unique healthcare IT system, Minister of State for Infocommunication Vilmos Vályi-Nagy said in Budapest on 11 December, 2013.

The four-year project is to be implemented with several excellent knowledge centres and healthcare institutions in Hungary involved; participating institutions include the University of Pannonia, the University of Szeged and the National Institute of Oncology. The cooperation agreement on the above was signed by Minister of State for Infocommunication Vilmos Vályi-Nagy and Chief Technology Officer responsible for R&D of GE Healthcare in Hungary Lajos Reich at the laying of the virtual foundation stone ceremony of the new General Electric centre in Váci út.

The new IT system is to fundamentally change the healthcare supply system since the new machines will be able to predict and prevent problems by communicating the right information to the right persons at the right time. Medical specialists and healthcare employees are thus to receive information crucial for saving lives significantly faster and more efficiently. The world class system may help curb the steadily growing healthcare expenditure and improve the quality and efficiency of the industry.

The widely acknowledged excellence of Hungarian programming experts can once again become evident now since the project will provide extraordinary opportunities to almost two hundred software developers, Vilmos Vályi-Nagy said. Not only this project but the field of innovation as a whole are of priority importance for the Government since this is the engine for employment creation and economic growth as well as the basis for competitiveness.

In the past period, the ratio of R&D expenditure compared to GDP has been 1.3%, the highest figure in the past twenty years. The Government wishes to raise this ratio to 1.8% by 2020, for the facilitation of which EU funds of HUF 700bn are to be made available for the field in 2014-2020 according to plans.

(Ministry of National Development Communications Department)