Turkey Artificial Intelligence Action Plan Announced: A New Era for Health Informatics Begins

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced the Turkey Artificial Intelligence Summit held at Rixos Tersane in Beyoğlu, Istanbul, unveiling the Turkey Artificial Intelligence Action Plan covering the period 2026-2030.

The new action plan aims to promote artificial intelligence technologies across various sectors, primarily including public services, healthcare, defense, agriculture, industry, education, cybersecurity, and data infrastructures.

The plan is expected to have significant impacts, particularly in terms of health informatics, HBYS, clinical decision support systems, data security, national datasets, and AI-supported public services.

The Artificial Intelligence Action Plan is Based on 4 Main Axes

The announced action plan is structured around four fundamental axes:

1. Notice
2. Benefit
3. Produce
4. Manage

This structure aims for Turkey to be a country that not only uses artificial intelligence but also produces it with its capabilities in data, models, infrastructure, regulation, and application development.

Healthcare Sector is Among the Priority Areas

In the action plan, the healthcare sector stands out as one of the primary areas for the application of artificial intelligence technologies.

In this context, more effective use of health data, opening public datasets for access, developing AI-supported decision-making mechanisms, and increasing digital efficiency in healthcare services are expected.

Transformation may accelerate particularly in the following areas:

• AI-supported analyses in HBYS and SBYS systems
• Clinical decision support systems
• Interpretation of radiology, pathology, and laboratory data with AI
• Patient risk scoring systems
• Appointment, capacity, and resource planning optimization
• Medical documentation automation
• Operational efficiency analytics in healthcare facilities
• Research and model development using national health datasets

At Least 2,000 Public Datasets Will Be Opened to the National Data Library

The plan aims to open access to at least 2,000 public datasets, primarily in health, agriculture, defense, and e-commerce, through the National Data Library.

This step is critically important for health informatics. The success of AI systems largely depends on access to high-quality, standardized, and secure datasets.

Anonymized datasets that can be opened in the health sector can create a new R&D ground for academic research, startups, HBYS companies, medical AI developers, and public institutions.

However, the most critical topics here will be:

• Anonymization of personal health data
• Compliance with KVKK
• Data standardization
• Use of health data standards such as HL7 / FHIR
• Classification of datasets in terms of clinical accuracy and quality
• Clarification of public-private sector access models

Budget Will Be Allocated for Public AI Projects

The action plan aims to allocate at least 2% of public investment programs for AI projects.

This target could create new opportunities for health informatics projects. Increased support for AI-supported applications in public hospitals, city hospitals, provincial health directorates, and central health information systems is expected.

In particular, an increase in public investments is likely in the following areas:

• AI-supported HBYS modules
• Central health data analytics platforms
• Smart services in national health systems like E-Nabız
• Hospital capacity and resource management
• Digital triage systems
• Imaging and laboratory decision support applications
• Cybersecurity and data security infrastructures

Data Center Capacity Will Be Increased to 1 GW by 2030

The plan aims to increase Turkey's data center installed capacity to at least 1 gigawatt by 2030.

This goal is strategically important for training AI models, processing big data, public cloud infrastructures, and securely storing health data.

In terms of health informatics systems, increased data center capacity could be effective in the following areas:

• Large-scale health data processing
• Stronger infrastructure for imaging archiving systems
• Transition of PACS, HBYS, LIS, and RIS systems to cloud architecture
• Faster performance of AI-supported clinical analyses
• Strengthening disaster recovery and backup capacity
• Making the national health data architecture more secure

Turkish Large Language Model Studies Will Continue

The action plan emphasizes the importance of Turkish large language model studies. Bilge, developed by TÜBİTAK, and large language model studies conducted in collaboration with T3 Foundation and Baykar, as well as HAVELSAN's large language model projects, are among the highlighted projects.

Turkish large language models hold particular significance for health informatics. This is because documents in the health sector, patient records, epicrises, laboratory notes, radiology reports, and clinical texts are mostly produced in Turkish.

Therefore, Turkish-focused models can be used in the following areas:

• Epicrisis summarization
• Clinical document classification
• Meaning extraction from medical texts
• Patient history summarization
• Structuring doctor notes
• Call center and patient communication assistants
• Natural language querying within HBYS
• Health legislation and SUT interpretation assistants

10,000 Advanced AI Specialists Will Be Trained

The plan aims to train 10,000 advanced AI specialists and 100,000 AI application professionals.

This target represents a critical human resource for the health informatics ecosystem. Successful implementation of AI applications in hospitals requires not only software developers but also data analysts familiar with healthcare processes, clinical process experts, biomedical engineers, HBYS specialists, and cybersecurity professionals.

In the upcoming period, the following roles are expected to become more visible in healthcare institutions:

• Health data analyst
• Clinical AI specialist
• HBYS integration specialist
• Health data architect
• Medical NLP specialist
• Cybersecurity specialist in healthcare
• Clinical decision support system product manager
• Digital health project manager

AI Coupons Will Provide Accessible Technology for SMEs

The action plan mentions a mechanism of AI coupons that will facilitate SMEs' access to AI solutions, particularly in priority areas such as health, energy, and smart manufacturing.

This structure could be significant for software companies developing health technologies. Especially SMEs that develop HBYS, mobile health, clinical decision support, medical image analysis, patient tracking, appointment optimization, and digital hospital solutions can benefit from this support.

Regulatory Testbeds Will Be Established

The plan aims to establish regulatory testbeds in at least 5 priority sectors.

These areas will allow for the controlled testing of AI solutions. If such a structure is established in the healthcare sector, it will be possible to test new AI applications for safety, accuracy, ethics, and compliance before they transition to real clinical environments.

Regulatory testbeds in healthcare will be particularly important in the following areas:

• Validation of clinical decision support systems
• Testing medical imaging AIs
• Compliance of models processing patient data with KVKK
• Evaluation of applications classified as medical device software
• Security checks for AI-supported diagnostic recommendation systems
• Algorithmic bias and ethical evaluation processes in healthcare

What Does This Mean for the HBYS Ecosystem?

The Turkey Artificial Intelligence Action Plan indicates that a new competitive era has begun for HBYS and the health informatics sector.

In the coming years, HBYS systems are expected to do more than just keep records, generate invoices, or manage patient admission processes. Next-generation HBYS platforms will need to:

• Produce data analytics,
• Provide AI-supported recommendations,
• Work in integration with clinical decision support mechanisms,
• Comply with national data standards,
• Meet cybersecurity and data privacy requirements,
• Establish strong integration with standards like FHIR, HL7, DICOM,
• Communicate at the API level with public and private health systems

will be necessary.

Therefore, it is expected that HBYS companies will place greater emphasis on artificial intelligence, data governance, integration standards, and security architecture in their product roadmaps in the coming period.

Conclusion

The Turkey Artificial Intelligence Action Plan presents not only a technological vision document for health informatics but also a strategic transformation framework that addresses data, infrastructure, human resources, regulation, and public investments together.

The impact of artificial intelligence in the healthcare sector will become more visible in the upcoming period. HBYS, SBYS, PACS, LIS, RIS, E-Nabız, clinical decision support systems, and digital hospital solutions will be at the center of this transformation.

The most critical success factor in this process will not only be using artificial intelligence but also developing AI systems that are secure, compliant with standards, auditable, ethical, and clinically beneficial.