Dr Július Örhalmi received a prestigious award in Vienna for his scientific work

He received the award for a project aimed at improving the quality and safety of treatment for patients with rectal cancer. Ladislav Wagner, Ladislav Švec and Marián Rybář from the Health Insurance Office and the Czech Ministry of Health collaborated on the project alongside Július Örhalmi .

Better care thanks to experienced teams

The value of this work lies in linking national data on treatment outcomes with specific changes to the organisation of healthcare. The Czech project uses monitoring of post-operative mortality and other quality indicators as a basis for concentrating complex surgical treatment in specialist centres.

For patients , this model is intended to ensure care provided by experienced teams, coordinated decision-making regarding treatment and continuity between surgery and further oncological care. The centre’s status also entails certain obligations: to undertake an appropriate volume of care, to maintain its accessibility, and to report results regularly, which will be subject to external evaluation.

The award belongs to the whole team

“I see this award as recognition of the joint efforts of surgeons, data specialists, the Health Insurance Office and the Ministry of Health. Our aim is for the results of national analyses to translate into safer and better-organised patient care. The creation of a network of centres is an important step. We must now regularly assess whether it is meeting the expected objectives,” says Dr Örhalmi.