Challenge

Romania is one of the fastest growing economies in the EU, yet its healthcare system is one of the weakest in the region. It has a declining population of approximately 19 million, 4 million of which are children. 50% of children and 37% of adults are at risk of poverty and social exclusion. Many live in rural areas where access to quality health care presents a serious challenge. There is a shortage of doctors and nurses and equipment and financing which has resulted in significant overcrowding in emergency rooms with patients unable to access their family practitioner or ambulatory services. To tackle some of these challenges, The National Health Strategy 2014-2020 has a dedicated a Specific Objective aimed at increasing access to health services through the use of telemedicine. A number of attempts to develop telemedicine services have been implemented in the last decades. However, the scaling-up of these e-services and their integration in the healthcare system remains challenging.

How can Fondation Botnar, an innovative foundation with a legacy in Romania and a focus on investing in emerging digital health solutions for children and communities, catalyze collective action for the rapid uptake of digital health technologies to improve the health of children and their families in Romania?

Journey

Fondation Botnar has engaged Barbara Bulc as a strategic advisor to help innovate and accelerate the building of collective action, alongside local partners, that would enable the sustainable provision of digital health solutions to communities. The current situation in Romania presents an unprecedented opportunity to overcome the shortage of health workers through investment in AI and digital solutions. This would further accelerate the transformation of modern healthcare as it moves from the hospital to the home in Romania. This builds on Fondation Botnar’s existing work with partners in Romania, such as UNICEF, to develop, together with the Romanian government agencies, a scalable package of support measures to improve the health care of children and their families.

An initial assessment of the ecosystems with market analysis and extensive stakeholder mapping was conducted together with UNICEF Romania and Impact Hub Romania. This led to the organization of a first-of-its-kind roundtable on digital health with identified key potential partners entitled “Promoting the Use of Digital Technologies in Romania to Increase Access to Health Services for Vulnerable and Disadvantaged Populations.”

Hosted by the National Insurance House together with Fondation Botnar, UNICEF Romania and Impact Hub in Bucharest, invited participants from over 35 select key organizations and leaders from across the government, health professional groups, businesses, start-ups, foundations and non-profits. Potential key areas for action and partnerships were identified and shared with participants. We identified pathways to establish a functioning regulatory framework for digital health and telemedicine in Romania and to promote understanding of community-based solutions. Working groups and incubation projects are planned to address identified priority issues.

This initiative is ongoing.

Impact

• Developed the assessment and market analysis of digital health and telemedicine solutions in the Romanian health ecosystem
• Mapping of key public and private stakeholders in health and technology
• Catalyzed a first-of-its-kind roundtable “Promoting the Use of Digital Technologies in Romania to Increase the Access to Health Services for Vulnerable and Disadvantaged Populations”
• Identified change-making opportunities to develop new partnership initiatives that can deliver digital solutions to communities and enable policy change