Presenter: Mate Car

Title: Digital Solutions to Fight against COVID-19 Pandemic in Croatia

Duration: 15 min.

Abstract: The use of digital technologies can effectively contribute to better control and reduction of infection, thereby ensuring the achievement of the goal of epidemiological surveillance, particularly in the relaxation of social distancing measures. They have to be a part of integrative digital response to COVID-19 and joint effort of EU Member States in applying digital solutions to fight against global health crisis. Koronavirus.hr, the official government website for accurate and verified information on Coronavirus has been launched and updated frequently, offering also open and machine-readable datasets to the public. As one of the globally first solutions introduced to citizens, Croatia has launched Andrija.AI, a digital assistant for informing and advising citizens and facilitating the organisation of medical follow-up of persons with symptoms. There is a newly developed and now operational digital platform for infectious diseases monitoring, run by Croatian public health authority, and the contact tracing application is envisioned help epidemiological processes. These are some of the major examples of applying digital solutions to fight against COVID-19 pandemic in Croatia.

Biography: Mate Car, PhD, is an Assistant (Deputy) Minister of the Minister of Health of Croatia and an Honorary Lecturer at Imperial College London, with a passion to combine his academic, managerial and policy experience to achieve a synergic effect and the best results. He was previously also the special Adviser to the Minister of Health (for Finances) and an Assistant Director at the Croatian Institute for Telemedicine. He is appointed by the Ministry of Health to lead the Working group responsible for creating the Croatian national strategy for the health sector till 2030. His main interests are in the complex interactions within the health system, ranging from financial incentives, digital health, and burden of disease and taking a structured approach to address various issues.

Contact:
Mate Car, PhD
Deputy Minister
Ministry of Health of the Republic of Croatia, Zagreb, Croatia

Hrvoje Belani
Ministry of Health of the Republic of Croatia, Zagreb, Croatia
phone: +385 14607535
email: Hrvoje.Belani@miz.hr