Top 5 National Examples In Digital Health

It was on November 21st that I was last in Copenhagen, not to have some of that famous ?blefl?sk but to moderate an OECD event. I was tasked to challenge health ministers and other policy makers about the impact of advanced technologies on patients' lives and what regulations would facilitate these changes.

It was encouraging to see country leaders take a positive stance towards digital health and to hear about concrete examples as to how they are implementing technology to modify their local healthcare landscape. This experience served as an inspiration to write this article.

In it we will highlight the most country notable initiatives pertaining to digital health around the world.

Privacy first

When it comes to digitizing health records, one of the main concerns, and rightfully so, is the issue of privacy and security over one’s data. Those sensitive data are the reason hospitals are such an attractive target for ransomwares which make headlines way more often than we would like them to. As such, robust measures need to be put in place while implementing digitized solutions in healthcare.

Source: https://pennyinsuranceagency.com/

Germany, in its bid to become a leader in digital health, is doubling down on those concerns. The county’s health ministry aims to bring electronic health records to all insured patients by 2021, with a focus on data privacy and security as the government will also introduce a law regarding electronic health records protection.

On the other hand, Denmark is already developing a model for patient data storage safeguarded by the government itself. For example, the Danish National Genome Center stores only one copy of each patient’s genetic data, which cannot be downloaded, copied or removed from the genome database.

Estonia’s eHealth Authority for its part invested in blockchain technology in early 2017 to secure the data of the country’s highly digitized healthcare system.

Patient access to medical records

If it’s your data, why shouldn’t you have access to it? That’s basically the concept behind Sweden's national eHealth vision. The latter aims to provide all residents aged 16 and above with access to all health-related information documented in county-funded health and dental care by 2020.

Source: www.techengage.com

Via the 1177 portal, Swedish citizens are already given access to their electronic health records (EHR), are able to send secure messages to hospitals, are provided with information about illnesses and treatments, and it also allows them to learn more about healthcare in their particular region. A survey even showed that over 95% of patients were positive towards accessible patient EHR.

Prescription apps

Once the domain of messaging services and casual games, mobile apps are now an integral part of the healthcare system. Your doctor might soon prescribe them to you alongside traditional medicines.

England’s National Health Service (NHS) trialled a system in 2017 which prescribed apps to patients with chronic conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and gestational diabetes. Through a smart device, these apps can remotely transmit patient data to clinicians. This subsequently reduced patients’ visits to clinics by 25%, as shown by a two-year trial at the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust. Less time in clinics and more time at home; isn’t this convenient?

Source: https://www.mindinventory.com/

In a similar vein to the NHS’ efforts, the German parliament announced early this November that starting in 2020, patients across Germany will be prescribed health apps, such as digital diaries for diabetes and apps to support physiotherapy via their electronic devices. German Health Minister Jens Spahn described the policy as a "world first”.

Patient involvement

How would you know what works and what doesn’t if you don’t ask? By involving the general public, who are the ones who will experience the healthcare system first hand, governments can get valuable insights.

Source: https://www.psoriasis.org/

Heading to this advice was Rwanda’s former Minister of Health, who would hold discussions on Twitter about the healthcare state of the country by using the #MinisterMondays hashtag. In the Netherlands, Prof. Stefaan Bergé, head of the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Department of Radboud Medical Centre, involved patient’s input when designing a new facility. The resulting friendlier environment led to a more balanced patient-doctor relationship.

Precision medicine for all

Medicine tailored to one’s specific needs based on their genetic makeup: isn’t this the ideal that healthcare systems should strive for? Understandably a painstaking task, this has nevertheless not faltered Estonia, the “digital nation”, to steadily work its way to that ideal.

The Baltic country’s personalized medicine project has been underway for nearly two decades. With approximately 10 percent of the population’s genetic data in the Estonian biobank and with the numbers steadily growing, the country is planning to use these data to make precision medicine a reality for all of its inhabitants. Tonu Esko, Vice Director of the Estonian Genome Center, said that the Estonian Genome Center plans to construct polygenic risk scores or risk profiles for every single disease – in case of every single Estonian citizen. With such detailed genetic data available, physicians will subsequently be able to focus on prevention and early diagnosis.

Source: https://www.dtu.dk/

It takes a concerted effort to bring the digital revolution to medicine. With key policymakers embracing and implementing digitized solutions in the healthcare sector with initiatives like those listed above, other governments might want to follow suit, unless they want to be left behind… 

To help inspire key policy-makers and governments, I would like to bring to your attention the free policy maker report that The Medical Futurist Institute has put together.

In it, we compiled the best global examples of how governments are implementing digital health strategies. We again encourage everyone to download and use it for the common good, the envisioned better future of healthcare.

Dr. Bertalan Mesko, PhD is The Medical Futurist and Director of The Medical Futurist Institute analyzing how science fiction technologies can become reality in medicine and healthcare. As a geek physician with a PhD in genomics, he is a keynote speaker and an Amazon Top 100 author.

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