Miklós Szócska

Director, Institute of Digital Health Sciences, Semmelweis University
Dean, Faculty of Health and Public Services, SU

Professional profile

Dr Miklós Szócska is the Director of the Institute of Digital Health Sciences and Dean of the Faculty of Health and Public Services at Semmelweis University, Budapest. From 2010 to 2014, he served as the Minister of State for Health in the Hungarian Government.

During his tenure, he developed an evidence-based consultative health policy and introduced significant health reforms. These included a comprehensive public health regulatory framework, such as a full ban on smoking in public places and workplaces, safety limitations on trans-fat content in food, and the introduction of a public health tax on food and beverages with added sugar and salt. Over four years, he also implemented central capacity planning to support the rationalisation and regionalisation of healthcare provision and designed new, more efficient patient pathways.

Since 2014, he has resumed his role as Director of the Health Services Management Training Centre and has taken on responsibility for the Institute of Digital Health Sciences at Semmelweis University. In 2016, Dr Szócska was nominated by the Hungarian Government for the Director-General position at the World Health Organization.

His professional interests include organisational development, change management, leadership, health human resources migration, and health HR strategy. More recently, he has focused on network analysis, big data solutions, and data mining.