Health informatics strategy and progress in Denmark
Drs Søren Lippert and Arne Kverneland, from the
National Board of Health, outline the current revolution facing their
country’s healthcare information-handling systems.
keywords:national strategy,
interoperability, electronic healthcare records
abstract
Since 1996 a national strategic process focused on electronic
healthcare records (EHRs) has evolved in Denmark. Building on an
increasingly successful programme of electronic communication
developments in healthcare, the current National Strategy for IT in
Health Care, 2003–7 envisages a common information-management model
for the EHR, for all healthcare sectors in the country. The standardised
electronic healthcare record will enable clinicians to communicate with
each other better, enable patients to be better involved in their own
healthcare and enable better extraction of data and information for the
purposes of improving healthcare management and delivery. The National
Board of Health has developed a generic Basic-EHR structure for this
purpose.
Four progressive steps have been planned, in order to reach full
interoperability. The strategy introduces the need for a Public Health
Information Portal, a national terminology server, and co-ordinated
implementation of EHRs — all of which are presently in development.
Br J Healthcare Comput Info Manage 2003; 20(7): 25–8. |
