The future of e-health: A Nordic perspective from Oslo

This week, Oslo has been the venue for "eHealth 2024", a conference that this year has focused on the Nordic region in a joint effort to shape the future of e-health. These have been days filled with insights and visions, in which researchers from the Norwegian Centre for E-health Research have participated as part of a broader commitment from the Nordic e-health research network (NeRN).

The NeRN network gathered during the eHealth conference in Oslo. Photo: Signe Lohmann-Lafrenz, NTNU.

In a world where the healthcare sector is bending under the weight of increasing challenges - from a staffing crisis and burnout among healthcare professionals, to a crying need for effective IT solutions - the "eHealth 2024" conference offers hope for a better future in the healthcare sector with promises of innovation and improvement.

Health sector with challenges

The The Office of the Auditor General Norway recent report shedding light on hospitals' IT challenges points to a necessary way forward: technology must be a solution, not a complication.

The goal is clear: technology should be a solution, not part of the problem.

This has been a guiding principle throughout the conference. Seen from a Nordic perspective through the NeRN network, researchers such as Espen Solbakken Nordheim and Ove Lintvedt at the Norwegian Centre for E-health Research have shared insights that point towards a Nordic collaboration on the future of e-health.

In addition, head of center at the Norwegian Centre for E-health Research, Stein Olav Skrøvseth, participated in the conference's program committee and led a panel discussion on what we can and should do to build more knowledge about artificial intelligence in the health sector.

Professional strength

Professor Arild Faxvaag at NTNU gave a presentation on how we measure the impact of e-health, based on experiences from the Nordic e-health research network (NeRN).

Ove Lintvedt, senior researcher at the Norwegian Center for E-health Research, talked about clinicians' satisfaction with the EPR system (electronic patient record) and the influence of human factors, with insights from the implementation of DIPS Arena in Helse-Nord.

Ove Lintvedt, ehelse2024 — Researcher Ove Lintvedt in action at this year's eHealth conference

- eHealth 2024 is a great opportunity to share insights and experiences from our own research and promote the good work being done by the researchers who are part of the NeRN group, says Espen Solbakken Nordheim, research coordinator at the Norwegian Centre for E-health Research.

Nordic eHealth network

The NeRN network, led by Faxvaag, consists of researchers from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and Finland. The network works to develop common Nordic indicators for e-health functions and services. These indicators aim to support the Nordic welfare systems and contribute to the development of sustainable digital health systems.

In addition to the conference, there have been productive meetings on further validation of the NeRN citizen survey, development of new indicators for the period from 2025, and planning for presentations at the upcoming MIE conference in August. The collaboration with the Norwegian Directorate of Health was also strengthened, with a common understanding of the importance of closer cooperation, especially in relation to data collection.

- We are very pleased that the Directorate of Health took the time to attend our meeting. There was widespread agreement that we must continue to maintain the good cooperation for further indicator development and how to collect and share health data together, says Nordheim.

The conference marks an important step forward in Nordic efforts to tackle the growing challenges in e-health. Through collaboration and joint efforts, it motivates continuous improvement and innovation, with the goal of making technology a sustainable support for both healthcare professionals and patients.