HRVATSKI ZAVOD ZA ZDRAVSTVENO OSIGURANJE

Their core work

HZZO is Croatia's national health insurance fund, responsible for managing compulsory health insurance coverage for the country's population. In the EU research context, they contribute domain expertise on national health data systems, insurance coding standards, and cross-border patient data exchange. Their H2020 participation focuses on ensuring Croatian health infrastructure aligns with European eHealth interoperability standards, particularly around medical terminologies, drug identification, and electronic health record formats.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

HZZO's early H2020 work (2015–2018) centred on evaluating and assessing health terminologies — particularly SNOMED CT — and eHealth conformity standards, essentially building the foundational knowledge for interoperability. From 2019 onward, the focus shifted decisively toward implementation: cross-border electronic health record exchange (X-eHealth) and large-scale pharmaceutical identification systems (UNICOM). This trajectory shows a clear move from assessment and evaluation toward operational deployment of interoperability solutions.

HZZO is moving from evaluating interoperability standards toward actively implementing cross-border health data exchange and pharmaceutical identification systems, positioning them as a national-level deployment partner.

How they like to work

HZZO participates exclusively as a consortium partner, never as coordinator — consistent with their role as a national public body contributing real-world health system expertise rather than leading research agendas. With 83 unique partners across 27 countries, they operate in large, pan-European consortia typical of eHealth infrastructure projects. This makes them a reliable institutional partner who brings national health system access and regulatory insight to broad EU initiatives.

HZZO has collaborated with 83 unique partners across 27 countries, reflecting the pan-European nature of eHealth interoperability projects that require representation from many national health systems. Their network is broadly European with no visible geographic concentration.

What sets them apart

As Croatia's national health insurance fund, HZZO brings something most research partners cannot: direct operational authority over a country's health data infrastructure and insurance coding systems. For any consortium needing a South-East European national health authority to pilot or validate cross-border eHealth solutions, HZZO is a natural fit. They provide real-world deployment context — actual patient data flows, regulatory constraints, and implementation challenges — rather than theoretical research contributions.

Highlights from their portfolio

• UNICOM
  Their largest project (EUR 50,368), running until 2024, tackling the ambitious goal of scaling univocal drug identification across Europe using IDMP standards.
• X-eHealth
  Directly addresses cross-border EHR exchange covering lab results, discharge reports, imaging, and rare diseases — the operational frontier of European health data interoperability.