Sweden National Patient Summary, Sweden
Sweden uses HealthShare to create and deploy a national electronic health record in record time
In 2008, Sweden signed contracts with its suppliers to begin development of a national electronic health record (EHR), one of the first of its kind in the world. Based on InterSystems HealthShare health information exchange software, the National Patient Summary, (NPÖ) is part of Sweden’s National IT Strategy for improving patient safety and quality of care. Sweden’s primary objective was to ensure that vital clinical information about each of its citizens could be securely accessible online to care givers, regardless of time or location.
Sweden has seen rapid success. In a little
more than one year, the EHR was deployed
in the first of the country’s 21 healthcare
regions (Örebro). By the end of 2010, with
the remaining healthcare districts online,
Sweden will have a truly national EHR.
HealthShare was chosen for its proven reliability, scalability, and interoperability with existing healthcare systems. It took fewer than 10 developers and managers working on the NPÖ to bring the project to successful rollout under very tight time constraints.
“Our use of the NPÖ is giving patients greater confidence in us and satisfaction knowing that we can truly see their entire medical history, and are not missing some crucial piece of information from encounters in other places or with other physicians”
--Bengt Curman
Chief Physician
Medicine Clinic
Örebro University Hospital
HealthShare is giving caregivers a consolidated, browser-based display of patient demographics, medication lists, lab results, allergies, and other information considered most important for ensuring safe and effective care. The caregiver can simply click through to the detailed information behind the overview. Lab data is kept in a central repository, with the rest of the patient data retrieved as needed from local providers’ electronic medical record systems.
Going forward, plans for the NPÖ include using HealthShare for a Web portal so citizens can access their own healthcare information, and a smartphone interface giving clinicians truly anywhere/anytime access to the clinical data needed to ensure the highest level of care.
