Citizens Access to Health Information in National Portals in the Nordic Countries.

National eHealth portals for citizens are available in the five Nordic countries. This study describes and compares the Nordic citizen portals and identifies variations in content access and functionality. The findings suggest that availability of information and services depend on the organisation of the health system, the connection to national health information exchange platforms and incentives for providing data and services.

Citizens' Use of eHealth Services During COVID-19 in Relation to National Policy Goals.

The main goals of the Swedish eHealth strategy are to enable citizens to achieve good and equal health and welfare, and to support self-determination and increased participation in society. We analyzed the relationship between these goals and the use of eHealth services offered for citizens prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data was collected through a national citizen survey issued in 2019 and 2021 to a sample size of 15.000 representative individuals each. Results showed that the use of eHealth services was highest in the 30-49 years age group and among respondents with high education. There were no major differences between respondents with high, medium, or low income, and neither between respondents with different degrees of self-perceived health, nor between native Swedish and non-Swedish respondents. Changes in use of different eHealth services over time were most probably related to the pandemic and are not significant. All age groups showed a similar relative increase regarding their use of eHealth services, except when searching the Internet for diagnosis and treatment where persons above 75 years of age had the largest increase. Most significant were the increase in online visits and the decrease in maintaining health, training, or food diaries. Strategic goals related to equity seem to be partly met as eHealth services are used to the same degree by different socio-economic groups. However, the older population uses eHealth services less than other age groups and a deeper understanding of the relationship between specific services and their impact on strategic goals is needed.

Advances in E-Health.

E-health offers new ways to access health information, to deliver health and social care and to perform self-management [...].

Enhancing Safety During a Pandemic Using Virtual Care Remote Monitoring Technologies and UML Modeling.

OBJECTIVES: This paper describes a methodology for gathering requirements and early design of remote monitoring technology (RMT) for enhancing patient safety during pandemics using virtual care technologies. As pandemics such as COrona VIrus Disease (COVID-19) progress there is an increasing need for effective virtual care and RMT to support patient care while they are at home. METHODS: The authors describe their work in conducting literature reviews by searching PubMed.gov and the grey literature for articles, and government websites with guidelines describing the signs and symptoms of COVID-19, as well as the progression of the disease. The reviews focused on identifying gaps where RMT could be applied in novel ways and formed the basis for the subsequent modelling of use cases for applying RMT described in this paper. RESULTS: The work was conducted in the context of a new Home of the Future laboratory which has been set up at the University of Victoria. The literature review led to the development of a number of object-oriented models for deploying RMT. This modeling is being used for a number of purposes, including for education of students in health infomatics as well as testing of new use cases for RMT with industrial collaborators and projects within the smart home of the future laboratory. CONCLUSIONS: Object-oriented modeling, based on analysis of gaps in the literature, was found to be a useful approach for describing, communicating and teaching about potential new uses of RMT.

Ambient Assisted Living: Identifying New Challenges and Needs for Digital Technologies and Service Innovation.

BACKGROUND: The ambient assisted living (AAL) market is rapidly becoming fundamental to the delivery of health and social care services for the elderly. Worldwide many different steps have been taken to increase the engagement of older adults with these technologies. Much of this work has focused on the development of novel digital services that increase wellbeing or tackle social challenges. AIM: The aim of the study was to identify and describe the demands for AAL-services from the perspective of older adults. We also examine the challenges and needs of the ambient assisted living market using a needs based approach. METHOD: An exploratory case study was conducted with an aim to capture information about older adults' demands for AAL services. A survey was used to collect the data. The survey study respondents validated the results. RESULTS: The results of the study indicate that the area of AAL needs be studied from a multiple-sided market perspective. Our research suggests there is a need to describe and understand the factors that facilitate or constrain the implementation of services with focus on health and social care. There is also a need to describe and analyze the relationship between policy and practice and its effects on the AAL market. It is necessary to capture expressed demand, to identify market challenges at the macro level and to be able to understand how services should operate and serve older adults in practice. Such research is critical to the development of guidance for policy makers, suppliers and service providers. DISCUSSION: Older adults are asking for intelligent, assistive living solutions that help them to continue to live independent lives and remain socially included in their networks, associations, and communities. The elderly need services that stimulate and maintain their physical and intellectual capital. The development of innovative AAL environments is, however, a complex social process that involves the use and delivery of innovative ICT-based services. The implementation and use of AAL to support older adults involve service providers and elderly consumers. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the study may be of interest to policy makers, entrepreneurs, technology suppliers, service providers and health and social care organizations, who are willing to innovate and influence the development of the AAL market through their choices and decisions.

International Comparison of Six Basic eHealth Indicators Across 14 Countries: An eHealth Benchmarking Study.

BACKGROUND: Many countries adopt eHealth applications to support patient-centered care. Through information exchange, these eHealth applications may overcome institutional data silos and support holistic and ubiquitous (regional or national) information logistics. Available eHealth indicators mostly describe usage and acceptance of eHealth in a country. The eHealth indicators focusing on the cross-institutional availability of patient-related information for health care professionals, patients, and care givers are rare. OBJECTIVES: This study aims to present eHealth indicators on cross-institutional availability of relevant patient data for health care professionals, as well as for patients and their caregivers across 14 countries (Argentina, Australia, Austria, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong as a special administrative region of China, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, South Korea, Sweden, Turkey, and the United States) to compare our indicators and the resulting data for the examined countries with other eHealth benchmarks and to extend and explore changes to a comparable survey in 2017. We defined "availability of patient data" as the ability to access data in and to add data to the patient record in the respective country. METHODS: The invited experts from each of the 14 countries provided the indicator data for their country to reflect the situation on August 1, 2019, as date of reference. Overall, 60 items were aggregated to six eHealth indicators. RESULTS: Availability of patient-related information varies strongly by country. Health care professionals can access patients' most relevant cross-institutional health record data fully in only four countries. Patients and their caregivers can access their health record data fully in only two countries. Patients are able to fully add relevant data only in one country. Finland showed the best outcome of all eHealth indicators, followed by South Korea, Japan, and Sweden. CONCLUSION: Advancement in eHealth depends on contextual factors such as health care organization, national health politics, privacy laws, and health care financing. Improvements in eHealth indicators are thus often slow. However, our survey shows that some countries were able to improve on at least some indicators between 2017 and 2019. We anticipate further improvements in the future.

Evidence-Based Health Informatics as the Foundation for the COVID-19 Response: A Joint Call for Action.

BACKGROUND: As a major public health crisis, the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic demonstrates the urgent need for safe, effective, and evidence-based implementations of digital health. The urgency stems from the frequent tendency to focus attention on seemingly high promising digital health interventions despite being poorly validated in times of crisis. AIM: In this paper, we describe a joint call for action to use and leverage evidence-based health informatics as the foundation for the COVID-19 response and public health interventions. Tangible examples are provided for how the working groups and special interest groups of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) are helping to build an evidence-based response to this crisis. METHODS: Leaders of working and special interest groups of the IMIA, a total of 26 groups, were contacted via e-mail to provide a summary of the scientific-based efforts taken to combat COVID-19 pandemic and participate in the discussion toward the creation of this manuscript. A total of 13 groups participated in this manuscript. RESULTS: Various efforts were exerted by members of IMIA including (1) developing evidence-based guidelines for the design and deployment of digital health solutions during COVID-19; (2) surveying clinical informaticians internationally about key digital solutions deployed to combat COVID-19 and the challenges faced when implementing and using them; and (3) offering necessary resources for clinicians about the use of digital tools in clinical practice, education, and research during COVID-19. DISCUSSION: Rigor and evidence need to be taken into consideration when designing, implementing, and using digital tools to combat COVID-19 to avoid delays and unforeseen negative consequences. It is paramount to employ a multidisciplinary approach for the development and implementation of digital health tools that have been rapidly deployed in response to the pandemic bearing in mind human factors, ethics, data privacy, and the diversity of context at the local, national, and international levels. The training and capacity building of front-line workers is crucial and must be linked to a clear strategy for evaluation of ongoing experiences.

Exploring patients' perceptions of accessing electronic health records: Innovation in healthcare.

The more widespread implementation of electronic health records has led to new ways of providing access to healthcare information, allowing patients to view their medical notes, test results, medicines and so on. In this article, we explore how patients perceive the possibility to access their electronic health record online and whether this influences patient involvement. The study includes interviews with nine patients and a survey answered by 56 patients. Our results show that patients perceive healthcare information to be more accessible and that electronic health record accessibility improves recall, understanding and patient involvement. However, to achieve the goal of involving patients as active decision-makers in their own treatment, electronic health records need to be fully available and test results, referrals and information on drug interactions need to be offered. As patient access to electronic health records spreads, it is important to gain a deeper understanding of how documentation practices can be changed to serve healthcare professionals and patients.

Same, same but different: Perceptions of patients' online access to electronic health records among healthcare professionals.

In this study, we explore how healthcare professionals in primary care and outpatient clinics perceive the outcomes of giving patients online access to their electronic health records. The study was carried out as a case study and included a workshop, six interviews and a survey that was answered by 146 healthcare professionals. The results indicate that professionals working in primary care perceive that an increase in information-sharing with patients can increase adherence, clarify important information to the patient and allow the patient to quality-control documented information. Professionals at outpatient clinics seem less convinced about the benefits of patient accessible electronic health records and have concerns about how patients manage the information that they are given access to. However, the patient accessible electronic health record has not led to a change in documentation procedures among the majority of the professionals. While the findings can be connected to the context of outpatient clinics and primary care units, other contextual factors might influence the results and more in-depth studies are therefore needed to clarify the concerns.

Digital technologies for social inclusion of individuals with disabilities.

Information technology can be an important facilitator of social inclusion for people with disabilities into society. However, the goals specified in this area by organizations such as the European Commission have not yet been achieved in their totality. The aim of this paper is to explore which types of information communication technology-based applications and/or digital services have been suggested to facilitate the social integration of people who suffer from different types of disabilities. We performed a literature review that included studies published during a period of 6 years (2010-2016). The results show that, in the data we have had access to, no concrete patterns can be identified regarding the type of technology or technological trends that can be used to support the social integration of individuals with disabilities. This literature review is of relevance to the identification of further research areas and to the identification of issues which have to be considered in the context of the development and implementation of technological innovations that are aimed at promoting or facilitating social inclusion of individuals with disabilities.

The Role of PAEHRs in Patient Involvement.

With increased patient access to data, healthcare services are experiencing change where patients are moving away from being mere passive actors towards becoming more active and involved participants. In this paper, we explore the role of patient accessible electronic health records (PAEHRs) with respect to this increase in patient involvement. The study was performed as a case study and included nine interviews with patients and a survey that was responded to by 56 patients. Our results show that PAEHRs have a role in the enhancement of patient involvement because PAEHRs (i) foster a more balanced relationship between patients and healthcare professionals and (ii) increase access to information.

Monitoring and Benchmarking eHealth in the Nordic Countries.

The Nordic eHealth Research Network, a subgroup of the Nordic Council of Ministers eHealth group, is working on developing indicators to monitor progress in availability, use and outcome of eHealth applications in the Nordic countries. This paper reports on the consecutive analysis of National eHealth policies in the Nordic countries from 2012 to 2016. Furthermore, it discusses the consequences for the development of indicators that can measure changes in the eHealth environment arising from the policies. The main change in policies is reflected in a shift towards more stakeholder involvement and intensified focus on clinical infrastructure. This change suggests developing indicators that can monitor understandability and usability of eHealth systems, and the use and utility of shared information infrastructure from the perspective of the end-users - citizens/patients and clinicians in particular.

Multi-Sided Markets for Transforming Healthcare Service Delivery.

Changes in healthcare delivery needs have necessitated the design of new models for connecting providers and consumers of services. While healthcare delivery has traditionally been a push market, multi-sided markets offer the potential for transitioning to a pull market for service delivery. However, there is a need to better understand the business model for multi-sided markets as a first step to using them in healthcare. This paper addressed that need and describes a multi-sided market evaluation framework. Our framework identifies patient, governance and service delivery as three levels of brokerage consideration for evaluating multi-sided markets in healthcare.

Use Model for a User Centred Design in Multidisciplinary Teams.

The Use Model identifies user groups who will be using services and products the Prosperity4All infrastructure offers. The Model provides developers a tool to keep in mind the full diversity of users while building and designing the infrastructure.

Understanding Through Use: Elderly's Value Identification in a Service Experience.

This paper uses a qualitative approach, specifically; narrative analysis, to contextualize user's formulation of an understanding of a personalized meal planning service within the ambient assisted living domain. By focusing on how user's, in this case elderly over 65, formed an understanding of a service, and, what they thought valuable in using the service, based on their understanding. The results indicate how user's compare their initial understanding to their experienced understanding, formed during usage, and how this affects their value formulation of specific service aspects. The paper gives not only provides valuable insight into contextualizing aspects of health and wellness services, but to aspects of importance for implementation, by showing how value aspects of services from a user perspective are important to consider during these processes.

The Role of ICT in Home Care.

With an ageing population and limited resources, ICT is often mentioned as a solution to support elderly people in maintaining an independent and healthy lifestyle. In this paper, we describe how ICT can support access to information and rationalization of work processes in a home care context. We do this by modelling the workflow and identifying the possible impact of ICT. The results show a complex process and indicate that the available resources are not used in the best possible way. The introduction of ICT could increase patient safety by reducing the risk of misplacing information about the care recipients and at the same time provide real time information about the care recipients' needs and health at the point of care. However, to rationalize the work processes there is a need to combine ICT with a changed procedure for handling keys.

All that Glitters is not Gold: Six Steps Before Selecting and Prioritizing e-Health Services.

Since the market for e-health applications is constantly growing, it is getting an ever more complex endeavor to select and prioritize the right service offering given a particular situation. In examining the extant literature, it was revealed that little emphasis is actually placed on how to analyze contextual or environmental factors prior to the selection and prioritization of e-health services. With this paper, we therefore propose a formative framework consisting of six fundamental yet very pragmatic steps that may support decision makers in identifying the most important contextual pre-requisites that e-health services need to fulfill in order to be considered as effective for their environment to be implemented.

Guidance Through Use: Value as a Pathfinder in e-Health Services Implementation.

The lack of awareness and confidence in eHealth solutions among certain stakeholders creates a barrier for the implementation of e-Health services. The aim of this paper is to explore issues that promote the development and implementation of patient-centered care services for the elderly. An exploratory case study approach is applied to a e-Health monitoring service that was developed and piloted in 38 homes for the elderly in Sweden and the Netherlands. The unit of analysis, concept of 'value-in-use', was used in order to determine how pilot participants felt about a service of this kind benefiting them the most. The findings were then translated into actionable considerations for implementing organizations. The results indicate a need for active participation, technical support infrastructure, mobility demands, and an extension of the concept of trust in e-Health services. The knowledge presented in the study is important for decisions makers, public organization strategists, and policy writers.

I Got 99 Problems, and eHealth Is One.

Many eHealth initiatives are never implemented or merely end as pilot projects. Previous studies report that organisational, technical and human issues need to be properly taken into consideration if such initiatives are to be successful. The aim of this paper is to explore whether previously identified challenges within the area have remained in the Swedish eHealth setting or whether they have changed. After interviewing experts in eHealth, we present a classification of areas of concern. Recurrence of previously identified challenges was found, but also new issues were identified. The results of the study indicate that there is a need to consider organisational and semantic issues on both national and international levels. Legal and technical challenges still exist but it seems even more important to support eHealth initiatives financially, increase practitioners' knowledge in health informatics and manage new expectations from patients.

Healthcare in the age of open innovation - A literature review.

BACKGROUND: In spite of an increased interest in open innovation and strategies that call for an increased collaboration between different healthcare actors, there is a lack of open innovation research in public contexts. OBJECTIVE: This article presents the results of a review regarding the healthcare sector's engagement in open innovation as well as constraining factors and positive outcomes of open innovation in healthcare. METHOD: The literature search focused on papers published in English between 2003 and 2014. Based on specified inclusion criteria, 18 articles were included. RESULTS: Results reveal that most studies focus on inbound open innovation where external knowledge is integrated with the internal knowledge base at an initial phase of the innovation process. Innovation primarily results in products and services through innovation networks. We also identified constraining factors for open innovation in healthcare, including the complex organizations of healthcare, the need to establish routines for capturing knowledge from patients and clinicians, regulations and healthcare data laws as well as the positive outcome patient empowerment. CONCLUSION: The healthcare sector's engagement in open innovation is limited, and it is necessary to perform further research with a focus on how open innovation can be managed in healthcare.