title: National eHealth Implementation: Country Experience.
abstract: A national eHealth strategy is presumed to empower health professionals, patients and citizens to increase patient safety and quality of health care delivery. A national eHealth infrastructure encompassing a secure HealthNet, interconnected electronic health records, e-prescriptions, a national medication database and a patient portal has been implemented in Iceland. The timely and secure access to patient information by health professionals through a single portal, independent of where the patient received care, is expected to increase continuity of care, decrease duplication of data and tests, increase efficiency, increase cost effectiveness and benefit citizens in several ways. The eHealth strategy needs to be evaluated using comparable indicators.
authors.affiliation: Directorate of Health, Reykjavik, Iceland.
authors.forename: Gudrun Audur
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Hardardottir
authors.affiliation: University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland.
authors.forename: Asta
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Thoroddsen
mesh_terms: D057286:Electronic Health Records / Q000458:organization & administration*; D055695:Electronic Prescribing; D007055:Iceland; D050316:Medical Order Entry Systems / Q000458:organization & administration*; D008498:Medical Record Linkage / Q000379:methods; D017146:Models, Organizational; D009313:National Health Programs / Q000458:organization & administration*; D009937:Organizational Objectives; D033283:Patient Access to Records; D000072638:Patient Portals; D013685:Telecommunications / Q000458:organization & administration*