Last February, several Bulgarian actors in the field of e-health gathered at CRA partner Sofia Tech Park premises, to take part in the second workshop of our SocKETs labs.

What are the current barriers that can block the development of eHealth technology and innovations in the Bulgarian healthcare system?

Participants were invited to reflect and give their opinion and potential recommendations on several issues.

  • Is there a deficit in innovation culture? If yes – how can we fix it?
    In order to minimize this current deficit, Bulgarian society would need to invest in the training of specialists as well as the development of efficient awareness-raising campaigns. Each new technology should have a proper implementation and testing phase with patients.
  • What would be the best products and systems for distance monitoring of health parameters to be developed?
    Workshop participants mentioned three different functions:
    • Symptomatic diagnostics online – Digital General Practitioners – a proposal to alleviate the paperwork, a subsystem that refers patients to a direct specialist without wasting time
    • Online interest groups for disease prevention, in which patients with similar problems can be members, in which they can interact with specialists
    • Creating a platform for objective evaluation of food supplements.
  • Application case: what will be the future of tomorrow?
    Although we can expect a rise in the use and development of technology in the future, it would be wrong to imagine that society can function without any human interaction and communication, which cannot be replaced by technology.

Want to be involved in SocKETs?

If you want to join this societal engagement movement in Bulgaria, reach Tzetza, our Bulgarian SocKETs lab leader!