o 98% of notifications of admission/ notifications of
discharge from hospitals to municipalities are digitally
done
• Electronic health records (EHR)
Digitisation of the Danish healthcare sector is not limited
to workflows. Electronic health record (EHR) systems have
been widely adopted in the Danish healthcare system for
years. There are five administrative regions in Denmark and
each region has its own EHR system. The five different EHR
systems are linked to the “National Health Record”, which
allows healthcare practitioners to access data from all
EHR systems, regardless of where the data was registered
and where it is accessed. Furthermore, Danish citizens can
access their personal data using their online signature.
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Access personal health data (medical history,
medication, vaccines, etc.)
Renew prescriptions
Access results from laboratory tests
Make appointments and communicate with personal GP
Look up waiting times at public hospitals
Register for organ donation in the case of death
• Sundhed.dk
Sundhed.dk is a patient portal that allows all Danish citizens
above the age of 15 to interact with health professionals
online and access a large variety of personal health data.
Sundhed.dk allows patients to:
that the highest possible standards are met. Even before
EU- General Data Protection Regulation came into force,
the Danish Act on Processing of Personal Data prevented
all stakeholders from collecting or accessing health data
to violate the using of any personal data. The existence of
strict and explicit requirements to personal data processing
has enabled the digitisation of highly sensitive data and
has therefore become a key underpinning of the Danish
healthcare sector.
Looking at some of the mentioned examples it is obvious
that nearly all the stakeholders of the health industry in
Denmark reap direct and indirect benefits of a system that
is extremely robust.
Digitization has given the much needed cost efficiency and
savings. Improved workflows and has enabled to lighten the
administrative burden largely which means the healthcare
professionals can devote their time and professional skills
on patients. Systems like sundhed.dk makes patients’ lives
hassle free especially with regards to taking appointments,
accessing health records while travelling or seeking second
opinions.
Digitalization has fuelled transparency in the health sector
as patient have access to all their information all the time.
Patients feel more empowered as they are at all times
aware of their health conditions and have greater insights
into his or her treatment and can access the same data as
any healthcare practitioner. As a consequence, dialogue
and trust between patients and the healthcare sector
have been improved and patient involvement has been
strengthened.
The healthcare professionals are more confident about
their decisions since they have access to entire medical
history, allergies, medication and the like at any given time.
Since the data is always electronically captured, chances of
error are minimal and there is never a case of lost data or
lost medical history.
With this strong EHR system in place, Denmark has access
to patient registries containing detailed and continually
updated patient data that can be used for epidemiological
research as well as scientific research in pharmaceuticals
and clinical pharmaceutical research.
While this article has been limited in scope and has focused
on digitization, digitization is only a small part of the wide
adoption of IT solutions in the Danish healthcare sector.
Denmark is also regarded as a market leader within
telemedicine, telehealth and medical devices.
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