Is There a Potential Impact of Research and Development (R&D) Policy on Health Care System Development in Croatia?

Major demographic changes over the last decades, increasing number of chronic diseases in population and appearance of new infectious diseases together with increasing costs of health care are imposing a great burden on health care systems in western societies, including Croatia. The aim of this study is to determine the amount and directions of investments in research and development (R&D) activities in biomedicine and biotechnology that could significantly impact the quality and costs of the health care in Croatia in long term. We analyzed relevant publicly available information maintained at the web sites of Ministry of Science, Education and Sport, Croatian National Institute of Public Health, Croatian Institute of Technology, The National Foundation for Science, Higher Education and Technological Development, United Through Knowledge Fund and Central Bureau of Statistics of the Republic of Croatia. Additionally, the comprehensive literature search was done on Medline and SCOPUS, Current Contents and other databases. There is a substantial increase in investment of R&D activities (scientific and technological project) in the field of biomedicine and biotechnology in Croatia, from various national as well as international resources. There is an emphasize on applied research funding and encouraging of international collaboration and collaboration with Croatian Diaspora. In the future, the results of funded projects could possibly lead to various products (e.g. new drug discoveries, new methodology and technology applications), and thus potentially significantly influence the quality and the costs of health care in Croatia in long term.