“Denmark has a world-class health information technology infrastructure, which played a significant role in management of the COVID-19 pandemic. National exchange of data is possible through electronic medical records that are accessible to individuals and health professionals at all levels. The system facilitates digital referrals, prescriptions and visits, as well as access to laboratory test results. Providers can also use the national online health information portal to communicate with other providers regarding referrals, discharges and prescriptions. Unique electronic personal identifiers are used to connect data across registries and databases.

“During COVID-19, this infrastructure made real-time epidemiological surveillance possible. Denmark is one of only six countries in Europe that make health care data readily and securely available to the research community through real-time remote access services or a research data centre. The Danish Health Data Authority, a subdivision of the Ministry of Health established in 2015, provides access to health data related to service, quality, utilisation and clinical registries for clinicians, the public and researchers. In March 2021, a unified data portal was launched to strengthen access to health data for researchers. Several features of the Danish health information system therefore complement the European Health Data Space initiative, which aims to promote better exchange of and access to health data for research and policy purposes (European Commission, 2021b).”

Source: OECD/European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies (2021), Denmark: Country Health Profile 2021, State of Health in the EU, OECD Publishing, Paris/European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, Brussels.

“Embedding patient-reported information in the care process is high on the policy agenda. In 2017, Denmark launched a comprehensive national programme to foster nationwide implementation of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs). A national steering group was created to support the standardisation of PROMs across all sectors in the health care system and to support their use in daily clinical practice and for quality improvement. A secretariat was also set up to carry on the operational work of establishing and maintaining terminology, establishing a bank of questionnaires, developing guidelines for standardised use of PROMs, supporting adoption of international PROMs, and sharing knowledge about PROMs.

“In primary care, Danish GPs can use an electronic data platform (called Web-Patient) to access data uploaded by patients, including measurements taken at home and PROMs. This tool fosters ongoing monitoring and dialogue during consultations.

“In hospital care, PROMs have been embedded in a number of clinical registries, including those for rheumatology, urology, gynaecology, obstetrics, different types of cancer (prostate and lung) and palliative care. In 2019, a new initiative was launched to create a national set of PROMs for patients with mental illnesses (such as depression and schizophrenia) and epilepsy for national use.”

Source: OECD/European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies (2019), Denmark: Country Health Profile 2019, State of Health in the EU, OECD Publishing, Paris/European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, Brussels.

“A number of public registers exist within the health care field concerning the population’s use of health care benefits, disease incidence and prevalence, causes of death, and so on (Thygesen & Ersbøll, 2011). The registers are mainly compiled for administrative purposes and the information regarding individuals is used for treatment and statistical research purposes. More specifically, the data can be used for the management of health expenses or the planning of activities within the health system. The registers and their data are furthermore very important for both epidemiological studies and health services research in Denmark (see also section 4.1.4).

“In the most commonly used registers, individuals are labelled according to a personal identification number (in the Central National Register (Centrale Person Register), the Danish Civil Registration System) and the Register contains information on the individuals, including their family relations, education and income status (Vallgårda & Krasnik, 2008). This provides researchers with the opportunity to collect and combine information at an individual level from different registers for the analysis of statistical associations (Knudsen & Hansen, 2008). Such coupling of registers is under strict regulation, because of data sensitivity.”

Source: Olejaz M, Juul Nielsen A, Rudkjøbing A, Okkels Birk H, Krasnik A, Hernández-Quevedo C. Denmark: Health system review. Health Systems in Transition, 2012, 14(2):1 – 192.

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Page last updated Nov. 19, 2022 by Doug McVay, Editor.