The “Meetings for Diagnosis in Health with Roche”, the first of which was held by Roche Diagnostic Turkey on Tuesday, May 25, 2021, was held with the contributions of experts in their fields. At the event, digital transformation in the field of health, the increasing value of diagnostics in the efficient management of health services and current developments in the health ecosystem were discussed.
In the “Digital Transformation in Health” panel moderated by Strategy and Innovation Consultant Mustafa İçil, Roche Diagnostics Turkey General Manager, Turkey & Central Asia and Caucasus Countries Management Center Head Burçak Çelik, Prof. Dr. Önder Ergönül and Assoc. Dr. Mehmet Gönen evaluated the importance of digitalization in the field of health, the future of the health ecosystem, and personalized diagnosis and treatment solutions.

Speaking at the panel, Roche Diagnostics Turkey General Manager, Head of Turkey & Central Asia and Caucasus Countries Management Center Burçak Çelik said: “Digital solutions fundamentally transform the healthcare system. As Roche, we carry out very strong R&D studies to deliver the most innovative solutions to patients and healthcare professionals and to improve the lives of patients in this transformation. We invested CHF 12.2 billion in our R&D activities, including our digital solutions, in 2020 alone. With the diagnostic tests, clinical decision support and disease management solutions we have developed, we focus on increasing the operational efficiency of laboratories and providing medical value, making quick and accurate decisions based on reliable data, and meeting the needs of patients to be involved in the disease management process in the most effective way. The way for patients to receive more effective treatments and prolong their life span is through personalized diagnosis and treatment solutions. At this point, we will continue to develop new partnerships and digital solutions that will provide significant benefits to both patients, decision-making experts and clinicians, and ultimately to the whole society.”

prof. Dr. Önder Ergönül said: “Today’s keyword is data. When the data is not made sense, it is not strong. That’s why we need a consistent data approach. Health data should be collected on horizontal and vertical axis. In the horizontal axis, information sharing between people in the same professions, hospitals and countries should be strengthened. On the vertical axis, it is critical that experts working in different fields interpret these data together. We should consider the accurate and confident sharing of data as a mobilization for our social development. The pandemic has accelerated data sharing, and we expect this speed to continue after the pandemic.”

Assoc. Dr. Mehmet Gönen said: “The number of patients a doctor can see during his professional life is limited, so he has limited data. If we take the data collected by thousands of physicians to the next level and use them with a holistic approach as a country, we can achieve significant improvements in diagnosis and treatment. Because collective knowledge makes us stronger against diseases where early diagnosis and treatment is critical, such as cancer. Artificial intelligence technologies will assume important functions as an assistant to doctors in the coming period.

The Health Diagnosis Meetings event continued after the panel in sessions where innovative developments and experiences in fields such as biochemistry, microbiology/infectious diseases, pathology and genetics were shared.