On February 8, 2023, the premiere of the documentary film CODE: LIFE took place in the Lumiere cinema. It is the first-ever documentary film production, examining the topic of digitization of the healthcare in Bulgaria, presenting the doctors’ and patients’ perspective. The initiator and author of the film is the Digital Health and Innovation Cluster Bulgaria, with the support and hard work of the team of The Brave Stories. The screening of the film was one hour, and it provoked a wave of emotional reactions among the viewers. The event was attended by more than 350 guests, including many representatives of the digital health business, highly recognized medical professionals, specialists in the field of health innovation and the pharmaceutical sector, patient organizations and others.
The film brings together digital and health experts, and opinion leaders in the name of Prof. Ivo Petrov, Dr. Alexander Simidchiev, Dr. Radoslav Mangaldzhiev, Dr. Boycho Boychev, Radoi Pavlov, Assoc. Rada Markova. The film also features real patients, which helps to better represent the need for digitization of the sector in order to achieve better health outcomes for the entire society. In this regard, improving the patient experience in the system occurs through the creation of more sustainable healthcare centered on the needs of patients.
The production presents real-world examples from the lives of the participants in the film – doctors and patients, illustrating the challenges arising from the lack of effective digital healthcare in the country and emphasizing the need to apply innovative technological solutions as a key tool for building the healthcare of tomorrow.
Taking into account the main messages of the film, this would require a complete transformation of the healthcare system, which is related, above all, to proactive actions and a change in the mindset of the whole society – a mindset that is currently associated with mistrust and resistance to the integration of new processes and technologies. The production conveys the idea that technologies can and do save human lives and are a key tool for improving health processes, for increasing the quality of medical service, diagnosis and treatment of patients. In other words, digital transformation is, above all, a transformation of business processes in the healthcare system, not a self-serving and partial use of technology. Furthermore, the film emphasizes that digital transformation is not a short-term project, but an evolutionary process that requires will and investment to create the healthcare of the future. The idea behind the film is that achieving all this requires a comprehensive and long-term strategy at national level, which is what developed health systems around the world rely on.
“For the past two years, our organization has created a framework for Digital Health strategy in Bulgaria. However, it needs both broad support from the participants in the health ecosystem and consensus at a political level,” explained at the end of the film Radoy Pavlov, honorary member of the DHI Cluster Bulgaria and Corporate Technology Architect Head at University Hospital – Zürich, Switzerland.
“Our organization aims to spark a discussion on these topics and we hope that we have caught your interest through our film,” said Mira Ganova, Executive Director of the DHI Cluster Bulgaria, in the closing part of the event, “We all believe that a consensus for the development of healthcare in Bulgaria through technology and access to quality health services, can be achieved, once we unite around the common cause of boosting our societal well-being.”
CODE: LIFE is just the first production of many to come that will be aimed at accelerating digital health knowledge. The DHI Cluster Bulgaria believes that this process is only possible through the consolidation of expertise and efforts in the sector, to create a transparent and innovative health ecosystem that relies on data from real practice to make informed and effective decisions for the benefit of patients.
