BAPEMED Lab will work as co-creation space aiming to develop a more resilient healthcare system, working with multiple stakeholders across the country. The pilot project will focus on the shift happening within health systems towards increased prevention and more personalised health, which requires digital health literacy. 

Key Features

The Bulgarian Association for Personalised Medicine (BAPEMED) is a non-profit organisation established in 2014 as the first of its kind in South-eastern Europe. BAPEMED successfully cooperates with industry, scientific and professional associations and patient organizations to find sustainable solutions in short term on country-specific problems in order to improve the treatment and quality of life of the patients/ individuals, and hence to optimize the effectiveness of the healthcare system - with the engagement of all interested parties. BAPEMED activities focus on three main streams: 1) Personalized Medicine Communication, Engagement & Education; 2) Patient Advocacy/ Patient-centricity; and 3) Digital health. 

Main Challenges

The pilot case will build on three key trends: demographic developments, the growing burden of non-communicable diseases, and the expanding role of technology. BAPEMED pilot will focus on key challenges such as system inefficiencies and limited use of health data:

  • Fragmentation of the process – frequently biologic samples traverse the whole country in order to be genetically tested, in most cases, by a different type of company with different diagnostic structures in the country. This additionally complicates the logistic process and lengthens the time to obtain results and undertake adequate measures).
  • The lack of regulations and adequate regulatory framework securing the correct conduction of the treatment-diagnostic process – the regulations definitely lag behind the implementation of technologies, a problem that is also in the process of being solved within the boundaries of the EU. Measures should be urgently taken, warranting on one hand the high quality and effectivity of the companion diagnostics, on the other hand the right to access of all patients, who would benefit from the target treatment.
  • Still a big percentage of human error in several stages of the process due to the insufficient level of information of the employees of the healthcare system; as a whole, the lack of reference structures, which should be sufficiently informative and assist the practice in this sector.
  • Prediction, prevention and early diagnosis of diseases – still in the background, not in focus
  • There is no system to collect health data – lagging in the development and utilization of eHealth/ Digital Health 

Highlights

The methodological approach of the lab will follow a pathway from exploring future scenarios to identifying resilient policies. The lab will generate various scenarios to analyse the trends and factors underlying challenges within the healthcare system. It will then apply factor projections and conduct policy testing against these scenarios to design effective policies tailored to different contexts. 

The BAPEMED lab places significant emphasis on participative foresight, leveraging a robust stakeholder engagement strategy built upon existing networks established by the association. This strategy utilises the BAPEMED website as a central platform to acquaint stakeholders with the project's objectives, approaches, anticipated outcomes, and the structure of the lab itself. Additionally, it provides information on partner organisations and their respective roles, the methodologies employed, and the overarching goals—all presented in the local language for accessibility and understanding.