Artificial Intelligence at the National Health Fund. Director Talks About the Value of Data

• The guest of the "Stechtoskop" podcast was the director of the public partnership and innovation office at the National Health Fund
• He admitted that the Fund uses machine learning tools to analyze data
• He stated that despite certain reservations regarding reliability, the information processed by the Fund is complete, up-to-date and continuous, which makes it a unique source of knowledge about the health of Poles.

The guest of the Health Market podcast "Stechtoskop" was Dariusz Dziełak , director of the public partnership and innovation office at the National Health Fund.

We asked him if the data collected by the National Health Fund (NFZ) from beneficiaries could be analyzed with the support of artificial intelligence to make strategic decisions regarding the health of Poles. We pointed out that this information is primarily used for reporting and billing purposes, which is why upcoding—the transfer of data that results in the best possible valuation—is a common practice.

Director Dariusz Dziełak replied that these data are currently used to make operational decisions, and for some time now, analyses have been supported by machine learning tools. The information is supplemented by data from other institutions, such as the Central Statistical Office .

The Fund representative noted that, unlike a number of other registers or databases operating in various institutions - despite certain limitations and the purposefulness of the data transferred - there are three features that distinguish the NFZ databases: timeliness , completeness and continuity .

"The fact that some data may raise certain doubts regarding its reliability only means that we are aware of it and are able to take it into account in our analyses. This isn't a major obstacle. Complete data has been submitted to the National Health Fund for a long time, so we can already talk about the large numbers effect, which can smooth out some inconsistencies," argued Dariusz Dziełak.

The director added that if this data weren't valuable, there wouldn't be a long queue of people eager to obtain it. Data continuity and the ability to track the treatment of individual patients are crucial for analysts, something no other institution in Poland has.

The entire interview with Dariusz Dziełak can be viewed at Rynek Zdrowia.

All episodes of the "Stechtoskop" podcast are available for listening on Spotify.

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