The session dedicated to maps of health needs was held on 7 March during the Health Challenges Congress in Katowice.
Roman Topór-Mądry, the President of the Agency for Health Technology Assessment and Tariff System, presented the role of DALY in assessment of health needs. The perspective of the public payer and main user of the maps was presented by Dariusz Dziełak, the Director of the Department of Analyses and Strategies of the Ministry of Health. The perspective of regional map use was covered by Damian Marciniak, the Director of the Wielkopolskie Health Department of the Voivodeship office in Poznań, and Roman Kolek, the Deputy Marshal of the Opole Voivodeship. The Ministry of Health was represented by Undersecretary of the State Zbigniew J. Król and the Director of the Director of the Department of Analyses and Strategies Jakub Adamski, who is in charge of the maps of health needs project.
The discussion concerned the ongoing work on the new map format and the practical importance on development of the current regional health policy. The panellists presented their expectations and discussed the previous uses of the maps in the operations of their institutions. The discussion included a request to make the maps into an even more realistic and accessible tool used to plan investments in the medical and health benefit financing sector. Jakub Adamski discussed the work being carried out at the Department of Analyses of the Ministry of Health, which are oriented in this direction, and Deputy Minister Zbigniew J. Król outlined the broad context of mapping health needs and its significance towards proper allocation of resources.
The participants in the discussion arrived at the same conclusion – the maps are a useful tool in development of the health policy. The current work, which includes presentation of objective health needs and the social perspective, improvement of epidemiological data, and digitalisation on the System and Implementation Analysis Database, aim to turn the maps into an even more popular tool, available to a wide range of recipients.