Laszlo Balkanyi

Between 1983 and 1996, he was a hospital physician, internist, and gastroenterologist at István and then Margit hospitals. In addition, in 1990-91, he participated in a health informatics training course in the Netherlands as a scholarship holder, and then obtained a PhD degree in 1996. In addition to his hospital work, he participated in several European research and development programs at the SZKI and then IQ-Soft institutes (e.g. MESSE: Medical Expert System for Special Examinations; EMRM: Electronic Medical Record Management System).

From 1996, he was an assistant professor at the Department of Medical Informatics (OIT) at the Haynal Imre University of Health Sciences (HIETE), later an associate professor; between 1998 and 2001, he was the head of the department. As part of his university work, the textbook “Health Informatics” (Medicina, 2000) was born, of which he was one of the editors and authors. During this period, the first Hungarian health informatics curriculum was accredited (co-organized with Ede Kékes and György Surján) by the Hungarian Higher Education Accreditation Committee (MAB).
Meanwhile, as an external expert (between 1996 and 2001), he was the head of the national development program of the so-called "Hospital Management Support Information System (KTI)" in the Ministry of Welfare, then Health, and later Health, Social and Family Affairs.

Subsequently (between 2001 and 2006), he participated in the planning and organization of the ÁNTSZ national network (Epidemiological Surveillance System; Information System (EFRIR); eHealth program) as a leading expert of the State Public Health and Medical Service (ÁNTSZ) and the Health Strategic Research Institute (ESKI).

From 2006 to 2018, he was the manager of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in Stockholm, and since 2014, he has been the head of knowledge services and internal communications.

Since 2018, he has been a part-time employee of the Health Informatics Research and Development Center (EIKFK) of the University of Pannonia.

Between 1993 and 2003, he was a member of the Technical Working Group on Health Informatics (TC 251) of the European Committee for Standardization (CEN); he participated in the development of the European standard HISA (Health Care Information System Architecture).
Between 1996 and 2006, he worked as an expert on health sector IT projects in the Baltics, former Yugoslavia and Central Asian countries of the former Soviet Union, under various assignments from the World Bank, the International Red Cross, USAID and WHO.

He was a member of or participated in the activities of several international and domestic professional organizations: IMIA (International Medical Informatics Association) 'Language and Meaning in Biomedicine' working group (vice president); John Neumann Computer Science Society Medical Biology Section (executive member); former secretary, then president, and board member of the Hungarian Health Informatics Society (MEIT) until its dissolution; member of the Medical Informatics Professional College; member of the Medical Informatics Working Group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.