Information technology strategies for health and social care in Norway

Bergstrøm, Roald; Heimly, Vigdis

doi:10.3402/ijch.v63i4.17751

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…Norway has a tax-financed public healthcare system [ 5 ]. The State, as owner of the hospitals, is responsible for ensuring access to health services for the entire population, including those living in the most isolated and remote areas [ 6 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring factors associated with the uneven utilization of telemedicine in Norway: a mixed methods study

Alami

Gagnon

Wootton

et al. 2017

BMC Med Inform Decis Mak

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BackgroundNorway has a long history of using telemedicine, especially for geographical reasons. Despite the availability of promising telemedicine applications and the implementation of national initiatives and policies, the sustainability and scaling-up of telemedicine in the health system is still far from accomplished. The main objective of this study was to explore and identify the multi-level (micro, meso and macro) factors affecting telemedicine utilization in Norway.MethodsWe used a mixed methods approach. Data from a national registry were collected to analyze the use of outpatient visits and telemedicine contacts in Norway from 2009 to 2015. Interviews with key stakeholders at national, regional and local level helped complete and contextualize the data analysis and explore the main issues affecting the use of telemedicine by health authorities and hospitals. Relevant national documents were also used to support, contradict, contextualize or clarify information and data.ResultsTelemedicine use in Norway from 2009 to 2015 remained very low, not exceeding 0.5% of total outpatient activity at regional level and 0.1% at national level. All four regions used telemedicine. Of the 29 hospitals, 24 used it at least once over the 7-year period. Telemedicine was not used regularly everywhere, with some hospitals using it sporadically. Telemedicine was mostly used in selected specialties, including rehabilitation, neurosurgery, skin and venereal diseases. Three major themes affecting implementation and utilization of telemedicine in Norway emerged: (i) governance and strategy; (ii) organizational and professional dimensions; (iii) economic and financial dimensions. For each theme, a number of factors and challenges faced at different health care levels were identified.ConclusionsThis study allowed shedding light on multi-level and interdependent factors affecting utilization of telemedicine in Norway. The identification of the main implementation and utilization challenges might support decision makers and practitioners in the successful scaling-up of telemedicine. This work provides a knowledge base useful to other countries which intend to implement telemedicine or other digital health services into their healthcare systems.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12911-017-0576-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring factors associated with the uneven utilization of telemedicine in Norway: a mixed methods study

Alami

Gagnon

Wootton

et al. 2017

BMC Med Inform Decis Mak

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“…[8,15] Although still in its infancy in developing countries, the broader concept of eHealth holds the potential to transform healthcare, particularly for remote and vulnerable population groups. [11,16] Certainly, some improvement in the accessibility, affordability and quality of care in the remotest areas is noteworthy, as eHealth seeks to offer and advance much-needed advice, diagnosis, treatment, second opinions and the prevention of disease. [17,18] In this context telemedicine has gained considerable attention with many countries, including SA, integrating it within their healthcare strategies.…”

Section: Addressing Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The development of ethical guidelines for telemedicine in South Africa

2019

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While telemedicine holds enormous promise for the provision of remote healthcare, it is not without its challenges. Recently, there has been a shift in the way in which healthcare is being practised globally. These new models of healthcare service provision ideally involve patients, doctors and machines working together, with few constraints imposed by geography, or national or institutional boundaries. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines eHealth simply as 'the use of information and communication technologies [ICT] for health'; [1] telemedicine, as a subset of eHealth, is the practice and delivery of healthcare over a distance using ICT. [2] The focus of this article is telemedicine. However, the term eHealth will be applied when speaking of the use of ICT in healthcare generally, and telehealth where this term is applied by others, or when a slightly more generic perspective (one that includes telemedicine) is required. Although largely beneficial, there is growing reflection on the legal and ethical challenges and complexities posed by these newly unfolding eHealth measures. [3,4] There is a need for guidance with regard to the eHealth landscape in South Africa (SA). It is understood that the emergence of telemedicine has created various legal and ethical dilemmas. [5,6] The broad ethical challenges are identified as: the changing nature of the traditional doctor-patient relationship; standards of care; quality of care; privacy; confidentiality; data protection; accountability; liability; consent; record-keeping; data storage; and authentication. While various legal, regulatory, and governance measures offer potential solutions and remedies for rights protection, the furtherance of ethical direction may be achieved through statutory bodies set up to promote and foster ethical compliance with normative healthcare standards. In SA, the Health Professions Council (HPCSA) spent several years developing the 'General ethical guidelines for good practice in telemedicine' (the HPCSA telemedicine guidelines), [7] a process which they found difficult. [8] Advances in technology and telemedicine have rendered several aspects of these guidelines, which focus largely on videoconference-based telemedicine, inappropriate. The guidelines are largely based on the World Medical Association (WMA)'s 2007 'Statement on the ethics of telemedicine' , which was rescinded in 2009, and replaced with a far more pragmatic statement on 'Guiding principles for the use of telehealth for the provision of healthcare' , which took recent advances in the field into account. [9] The field has since advanced further, with the growing use of mobile phones for telemedicine. The current shortcomings of the HPCSA guidelines need to be addressed if telemedicine is to meet the government's desire for telemedicine to improve both access to and quality of care for those in rural areas. This open-access article is distributed under Creative Commons licence CC-BY-NC 4.0.

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“…The Nordic countries are leading in eHealth applications. The number of general practitioners using electronic health records is among the highest in Europe [21]. While it is well known that IT in healthcare and social services have the potential to improve the welfare and efficiency of systems, the potentials of IT technologies to improve hospital logistics are still scarcely explored in hospitals.…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Possibilities and Benefits of Using Material Flow Information to Improve the Internal Hospital Supply Chain

Fragapane

Bertnum

Strandhagen

2019

IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology

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The concept of Supply Chain Management has become increasingly important in healthcare and notably in hospitals. Information along the supply chain is the key element for analysis and improvement purposes. The aim of the study is to analyze and visualize the material flow at a Norwegian hospital to identify the possibilities and benefits in current and future planning and operation. The integration of IT enables combining material and information flow. Statically analyses of the material flow can support in planning and control of the logistics activities. The visualization of the material flow can support to take long-term decisions e.g. for distributing departments at the hospital.

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Information technology strategies for health and social care in Norway

Cited by 9 publications

References 0 publications

Exploring factors associated with the uneven utilization of telemedicine in Norway: a mixed methods study

Exploring factors associated with the uneven utilization of telemedicine in Norway: a mixed methods study

The development of ethical guidelines for telemedicine in South Africa

Possibilities and Benefits of Using Material Flow Information to Improve the Internal Hospital Supply Chain

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