For fuldt ud at udnytte de muligheder for at lære, der findes i og mellem landene, skal der udvikles indikatorer, der gør det muligt at vurdere frem-skridtet i landene på en sammenlignelig måde. Dette ville give nyttige oplysninger om ens egne præstationer og vise, hvor man kan lære noget nyttigt.
Aktiviteterne til udvikling af IT-applikationer i sundhedssektoren er forøget, men fremskridtet har være langsommere inden for andre sociale serviceydelser. Den sociale servicesektor kunne drage fordel af det, man har lært inden for sundhedssektoren, f.eks. behovet for at løse "så-høste"-problemer, fordelene ved at nedbryde traditionelle barrierer og samarjde, behovet for et samarbejdsorgan og vigtigheden af at fokusere på be-hovet for at forbedre tjenesterne.
De nordiske lande har nået et stadium, hvor det nationale udviklings-niveau på dette område er udstrakt til også at gælde på et nordisk plan.
Dette er til dels et resultat af Samarbejdsnetværket af Nordiske Kompe-tencecentre inden for eSundhed, en frivillig gruppe til erfaringsudvek-sling og fælles aktiviteter vedrørende ICT i sundhedsplejen. Men dette nordiske samarbejde skal styrkes og struktureres yderligere ved hjælp af
passende ressourcer, lovgrundlag, kompetencer og kapacitet, så man kan udvikle og udnytte fælles løsninger yderligere. Det nordiske sundheds-netværk, som forbinder de nationale sundhedsnetværk i Danmark, Norge og Sverige, åbner ny muligheder for et nordisk marked for sund-hedstjenester. Dette giver øgede muligheder for serviceudvikling og forbedret effektivitet.
Governments are under pressure to deliver more value for taxpayers’
money. Administrations have to deliver more and better services with equal or fewer resources. The challenge is to achieve productivity growth in the public sector to create more opportunity for service improvement without increasing the cost. Moreover, as the population becomes older, public administrations will have to manage with fewer employees and fewer working taxpayers, while having to provide largely the same num-ber of services at a higher level of quality. Civil servants demand more interesting jobs, with more opportunity for self-development and personal interaction.
IT is not a universal solution for all challenges, but it may reduce the stress on the public sector and create new opportunities. IT in public ser-vices can enable improvement and more efficiency in administration. IT can improve the development and implementation of public policies and help the public sector cope with the conflicting demands of delivering more and better services with fewer resources.
This report studies the use of IT in the health and social sectors in the Nordic countries. The purpose of the study is to contribute to the possi-bilities for the Nordic countries to learn from each other and co-operate.
The countries studied are Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Iceland, and Nor-way.
The study consists of two parts. To provide a framework for IT in the health and social sectors, Part A describes IT in society at large, followed by a study of “eGovernment” in the Nordic countries. Part B of the report focuses on the use of IT in the health and social sectors. Key aspects of these sectors are studied, e.g. strategy, infrastructure, applications, col-laboration, and services for specific groups.
This section briefly describes the use of IT as measured by selected indi-cators. The overall development of IT provides a framework for the de-velopment of IT within health and social services.
The figure above shows that the Nordic countries have a relatively high degree of Internet use. Another study, which includes Sweden and Ice-land but excludes Norway, shows differences between the Nordic coun-tries. Sweden and Iceland had the highest percentage of both of Internet users and frequent users8 (see figure below).
8 Weekly users
Source: Nordic Information Society Statistics 2002
Individuals in the Nordic countries mainly use the Internet to communi-cate and to search for information. Icelanders score the highest rates in information searches (75 percent) and communication (72 percent). action with public authorities is a relatively less frequent use of the Inter-net, while communication (i.e. e-mail) is generally the most common activity. Over half of the adult population (and over 80 percent of Internet users) in Sweden and Denmark use e-mail in regular communication. The Finnish net users are relatively more engaged in information searches.
Internet, as a tool for interaction with public authorities, is most fre-quently used in Sweden and Iceland.
Source: Nordic Information Society Statistics 2002
International comparisons show that Scandinavians are among the most active when it comes to contacting the public sector via the Internet9.
Source: e-Norway Status report January 2003
About 90 percent of the computer users (65 percent–70 percent of the total population) use a computer at least weekly, the proportion of the daily users being 45 percent to 62 percent in the total population. Most computer users are not dependent on the equipment offered by their place of employment. People in Sweden use a computer at the workplace more often than people in Denmark or Finland, but only 7 percent to 11 percent of the computer users had used a computer only at work. The proportion of computer users who use it only at home varies from between 16 per-cent to 20 perper-cent in Finland and Sweden to 35 perper-cent in Denmark.
The digital divide is clear. Internet users can be divided according to gender, age, education, and region. Men are slightly more active than women in using the Internet. The gender difference in Finland, Iceland, and Sweden is only 2 to 5percentage points, but in Denmark 69 percent of men versus 60 percent of women had used the Internet during the past three months.
In the Nordic countries about 74 percent to 88 percent of people aged 16 to 49 years have access to a home computer, but after the age of 50, the access rate declines somewhat. Home computers are not very com-mon acom-mong the oldest age group. People aged 60 years and older have by far the lowest rate of access to IT appliances at home.
9 Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry, “e-Norway, Status Report January 2003”
Source: Nordic Information Society Statistics 2002
All Nordic countries clearly show a digital divide by level of education.
Half of the population with basic education are Internet users while 80 percent to 90 percent of the highly educated visit the web at least once every three months. Between countries there is some difference in the secondary education group, with 73 percent of Internet users in Sweden, followed by 67 percent in Denmark and 61 percent in Finland.
Source: Nordic Information Society Statistics 2002
Geographic location is another explanatory factor in the use of IT. In the Nordic countries as a whole, however, geography (i.e. population centres vs. other areas) has a weaker impact than age and education. Concerning Internet access at home, there is a fairly evident difference in Finland between the Helsinki metropolitan area (62 percent with an Internet con-nection at home) versus the rest of the country (51 percent). In Denmark and Norway the difference is 6 to 8 percentage points. In Sweden, hardly
any distinction can be found between greater Stockholm and the rest of the country.
Comparing prices in the Nordic countries reveals substantial differ-ences. Sweden has the lowest price levels and Norway the highest.
Price comparison of broadband10. Private market.
Source: Norsk Telecom AS
Conclusions
The data presented in this section show that from an international per-spective the Nordic countries are at the forefront, but there are also other countries where the citizens use the Internet at the same level or more.
Some differences were identified between the countries, but above all there are challenges that the Nordic countries clearly have in common.
The digital divide is a common challenge shared by the Nordic coun-tries. Age and level of education are the most apparent factors dividing the population. This fact is important given the focus on IT as an enabler for public services, for health services, and care for elderly.
Use of the Internet to interact with public authorities is lower com-pared to its use for information searches and communication. A possible conclusion here is that a large potential exists for the public sector to improve electronic services for populations that are already familiar with electronic communication and information in other sectors.
10Norwegian Telecom AS has obtained prices from broadband providers across the Nordic market.
The currency is the Euro and prices are for monthly subsciption fees with no additional connection charges, etc.
This section presents the IT strategies used in the Nordic countries. The aim is to describe the main strategic goals and priorities stated by the governments in this political area, and how they address the challenge to enhance the use of IT for all groups in society. The results of political action plans are described when available. However, we focus on the plans that are most relevant for our purposes, i.e. topics that concern IT in the public sector. The challenges and advantages that can be observed at the overall level are relevant for outcomes in the sectors we focus on.