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In connection with the article published on the “Dnevnik” website on June 25, 2025, titled „Тука има-тука няма: как (не) се събират данни за онкоболните в България we would like to make the following clarifications:
Since August 1, 2022, the National Health Information System (NHIS) has provided the capability to collect data on cancer patients, as well as to register hospitalizations, medical examinations, and the results of laboratory tests conducted on individuals with cancer. The data entered into the NHIS can be used for analyses and for extracting information about cancer patients.
The claims in the article that the process of transferring the National Cancer Registry to the National Center for Public Health and Analyses (NCPHA) has not been technically completed are not true. As of November 7, 2023, in accordance with the regulatory framework, the Cancer Registry was officially transferred to the NCPHA. Information Services conducted a highly detailed analysis of the registry’s database and software and prepared a report, which was presented and approved without comments on November 23, 2023, by the NCPHA and the Ministry of Health. The documet makes it clear that the technology used for the Cancer Registry is extremely outdated, the registry itself is incomplete, and there is no possibility of integration with the National Health Information System (NHIS) and other systems. The recommendations of the experts from Information Services are to build a completely new national cancer registry, which will include the database from the old one. The new registry is expected to be part of the NHIS as a separate module for cancer treatment.
In order to comply with European regulations and standards, Information Services also developed an analysis and technical specification for the future National Cancer Registry, which were submitted and approved by a working group at the Ministry of Health on February 1, 2025. In preparing the document, best European practices were examined and an extremely detailed analysis of the technical requirements of the European Network of Cancer Registries (ENCR) was carried out, taking into account both the recommendations of the ENCR and those of the data exchange network (JRC-ENCR).
We expect the Ministry of Health to take concrete steps to update the current regulatory framework and the standard for medical oncology, so that the oncology treatment module can begin operation and a new, functional National Cancer Registry can be established.