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Over half of the world’s hearing aids are made by 3 Danish companies (UBS 2019). In 1950 Denmark became the first country in the world to provide hearing aids for free to its citizens (Hindhede 2013). The country combines a comprehensive and generous government welfare system with an innovative and entrepreneurial private sector.
Country’s healthcare system in a nutshell
Denmark has a tax-based universal healthcare, all citizens have access to healthcare providing full coverage of the population. Its Denmark’s healthcare system is based built on four pillars (Sternberg, 2022):
Universal coverage
Financed by general taxes
Free and equal access
High degree of decentralisation
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The healthcare system in Denmark has fully embraced full digitalizationdigitalisation. Each region is tasked with responsible for storing electronic health record (EHR) data in their respective the region’s data repositoriesrepository. The EHR coverage is comprehensive, with healthcare providers mandated by law legally required to report to these regional data repositories. While there are The two distinct EHR systems in use throughout the country (EPIC and Systematic) , they operate independently without direct data exchange. Nonetheless, healthcare professionals can access their patients’ EHRs through the The national E-Journal , which includes shows healthcare professionals information from the EHRs of other regions . (Fragidis & Chatzoglou, 2018; Jensen & Thorseng, 2017; Tikkanen et al., 2020).
According to the most recent data from 2011, health insurance covered Health insurance covers the entire population of Denmark. This coverage encompasses both those who are members of health insurance schemes and those who have free access to state-provided healthcare services (Our World in Data, n.p.)
Public vs private
The national PHR
History
Sundhed.dk is a public, internet-based portal where every citizen can login to see their medical record, and every professional can also access it to see their patients records.
The history of Sundhed.dk traces back to 2001, when a broad political governing body was established to support the start of the development of the national e-health portal. This included The Association of County Councils, The Ministry of the Interior and Health, The Greater Capital’s Hospital Association, and Copenhagen and Frederiksberg Municipalities.
One of the initial duties for the board of directors was to set up a tender process. Given the size and intricacy of creating the shared infrastructure, they opted to conduct the tender as a competition, starting in spring 2002. The Maersk Data Consortium, made up of LEC, ACURE, PLS/Ramboll, and Bysted, emerged as the victor of the competition. A contract was signed with them by the central office of sundhed.dk in early 2003. However, it was not until 2009 that patients were given access to their data: in April 2009, sundhed.dk was launched on a new technical platform, and a development department started to do most development of services in-house, while external consultants were approached only to develop standalone services (the opposite than it used to happen before). One of the first initiatives at that time was to make medical records from public hospitals available so that patients would be able to see parts of their medical record such as treatments, diagnoses, and notes made by the healthcare personnel. (Jensen and Thorseng, 2017; Sundhed.dk, 2023)
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Features
In its technical design, sundhed.dk operates on a federated IT architecture, integrating with local systems. This means sundhed.dk can draw data from over 120 different sources without storing or duplicating it.
Every Danish citizen can log in and access their medical records on the platform after verification. These records include data from their general practitioners (GPs), from the electronic health record (EHR) systems of hospitals (Petersen, 2019), and some private health professionals (Hartlev, 2014).
Healthcare professionals can also use the platform, to access the health data of their patients. Thanks to sundhed, they also have access to clinical information, guidelines, and patient data ’s health data through Sundhed.dk. It also provides clinical information and guidelines that may not be available in their own systemslocal EHR. For instanceexample, GPs can access hospital EHRs, waiting lists, and contact information from details for other healthcare professionals (Petersen, 2019).
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On the platform, patients can:
access their health journal: here they can see health data from healthcare providers, such as their medical record from their public hospital, descriptions of X-ray examinations and scans carried out at public hospitals, test results, referrals, discharge letters, medications list (this includes the ability for patients to request repeat prescriptions), a list of past medical appointments with Gp/specialists/public hospital.
register and deregister as an organ donor, create a treatment will, see the status of screening procedures, give relatives power of attorney to view their health data or hide some data from the record.
Patients can see entries made in systems by their doctor and by authorised carers (but cannot see entries made in local journal systems at private practitioners' offices and at public hospitals)
see a list of their vaccinations (Sundhed.dk, 2023).
Challenges and areas for improvement
inability of patients to connect their devices to the record to automatically get their data such as from, for example, the glucometer.
lack of integrations with data sources such as EPIC, which has been introduced by some regions (Jensen, 2016)
Patients cannot add their own data to the record
Published outcomes - statistics
Sundhed.dk most used services in 2021:
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Challenges and areas for improvement
Despite its many strengths, there are still areas where the system could improve to further enhance patient engagement and functionality.
The inability for patients to connect personal health devices, such as home monitoring devices, to their records.
Patients cannot currently add their own health data to their medical records.
Statistics
Usage
Most used services
Laboratory results (Corona test results included)
Patient journal
Medicine card
Patient & Doctors handbook
Image descriptions
Appointments
Find a practitioner
Warrent
Find a health offer
Dentist prices
(The Norwegian Directorate of eHealth, 2022)How well-known are the portals?
Nordics NPS and knowledge
Denmark:
Net Promoter Score*: 21 (2021)
96% has heard of sundhed.dk (2021)
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(The Norwegian Directorate of eHealth, 2022)
Screenshots
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Bibliography
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