site.btaBulgarian Developer Launches Healthcare Transparency Platform

Bulgarian software developer Martin Atanasov has unveiled Diagnosis Bulgaria, a new online platform that analyzes public healthcare spending and identifies what he describes as nearly EUR 310 million in expenditures, procurement contracts and payments that appear unusual and warrant further scrutiny. 

In a Facebook post announcing the project, Atanasov said he developed the platform over the past seven to 10 months after processing more than 3 million rows of official data covering 180 state and municipal hospitals. The platform used data from the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), the Health Ministry and data obtained through the Access to Public Information Act.

Atanasov, who previously created the Black Track platform mapping road traffic accidents in Bulgaria, said the new project applies the same data-driven approach to healthcare.

According to Atanasov, the NHIF paid more than BGN 4 billion (roughly equal to some EUR 2 billion) for hospital care in 2025, but the data on how those funds were spent is scattered across multiple reports and public registries. He said the platform brings those datasets together into a single searchable database, with every figure linked to an official source document.

The platform highlights what Atanasov describes as anomalies, including cases where the same medicine costs significantly more at one hospital than at comparable facilities, public procurement procedures with no competition, and rising spending on outsourced services alongside relatively low staff salaries.

Atanasov stressed that the platform does not accuse any individual or healthcare institution of wrongdoing. Instead, he said it is intended to identify areas where further examination may be needed and to provide a factual basis for public debate and institutional oversight.

He called on citizens to explore the data for hospitals in their communities and use the platform to demand greater accountability for how public healthcare funds are spent, arguing that transparency is a prerequisite for improving Bulgaria's healthcare system.