STC2010 ráðstefna um upplýsingatækni í heilbrigðisþjónustu

Álfheiður Ingadóttir
heilbrigðisráðherra

2. júní 2010

Ladies and Gentlemen, President of EFMI

It is my great pleasure to be here today when we are opening the first international conference of health informatics that has been held in Iceland.  It is a sign of the times that Iceland, like all other countries in Europe is getting  increasingly aware and conscious of the importance of informatics in health care and the added value that good information technology along with scrutinized work flow patterns, and adherence to clinical guidelines and best practice  can deliver to the quality and effectiveness of health care.

The title of the conference Seamless care – safe care, the challenge of interoperability and patient safety in health care says a lot about what is the leading topic in informatics in Europe today. It sounds very straight forward  and almost self given that patient care should be continuous and seamless, that is  between hospitals and family physicians and that patients should not have to fear for their safety. And certainly we all try our best not to make mistakes that can cause harm to our patients, but the research literature  in the past years has shown  that our best is not quite good enough. There is room for improvement here and good information technology is one of the best ways to get it.  

It is becoming more and more apparent that eHealth is the future approach  to increasing efficiency and improving safety.  E-Health policies are being formed anew in our countries and political leadership is needed for further integration of eHealth into Health policy in order to develop eHealth services on the basis of public health needs.

In March I had the pleasure to attend the European ministerial conference on eHealth in Barcelona. It was an exciting and interesting event and gave me a good insight into current trends and innovations in the world of informatics. At the Barcelona meeting the European ministers of health signed a Conference Declaration called European Co-operation on eHealth, a broad declaration that among other things addresses eHealth´s importance in the policymaking for health care in Europe. Interoperability was taken highly into account in the declaration. The ministers agreed to resolve legal, regulatory and organisational barriers to eHealth interoperability. Furthermore they declared to support semantic interoperability and to develop internationally-recognised common standards and certification of testing to facilitate their deployment and use in all eHealth applications. These topics, semantic and legal interoperability, common standards for exchange of information and the deployment of standards, are on the agenda at this conference among many other important issues.

This conference is a token of co-operation between us, the different nations of Europe that want to be able to make it easier to provide health care for our citizens,  in whatever country they might be staying when they need it. No man is an island. And no nation is an island, even a small geographical island like Iceland. Co-operation and interaction with other nations is of utmost importance. Being big or small we all can gain from the different and creative input and experience of other nations.

The development of health technology in health care in Iceland has been growing steadily for the last two decades. Policy decisions have been made to develop a seamless electronic health record for all citizens from birth to death. We have had the luck (I think I can say) to have had a certain conformity of solutions for the electronic health record in this country. Health institutions are currently merging into larger ones and the electronic health records are merging with them. This was facilitated with the passing of a new bill on electronic health records a year ago that made our legal framework allow this interconnection of systems and the electronic transfer of patient data. But, we still do have problems with interoperability and with standards and with all the same things as everybody else. Therefore I welcome the opportunity for us to meet all of you so that together we can discuss and learn and improve together. I am very happy about how many people from other countries braved the forces of nature and took a plane trip over here and I would like to extend a specially warm welcome to you for that, and likewise I am pleased how many Icelanders have taken the opportunity to spend two days learning and co-operating with colleagues and hopefully forging new alliances and acquaintances. I welcome you all to this conference and wish you a fruitful and enjoyable two days to come.

Thank you.

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