Denmark's digital health system could pave way for U.S.

The New York Times reports that "using medical devices and notebook computers, patients can see doctors without leaving home, and have the information automatically logged into electronic records." 

"Today, virtually all primary care physicians and nearly half of the hospitals use electronic records, and officials are trying to encourage more 'telemedicine' projects. ... Several studies, including one to be published later this month by the Commonwealth Fund, conclude that the Danish information system is the most efficient in the world, saving doctors an average of 50 minutes a day in administrative work."

"Now policy makers in the United States are studying Denmark's system to see whether its successes can be replicated as part of the overhaul of the health system making its way through Congress. ... Denmark's success has much to do with the its small size, its homogeneous population and its regulated health care system — on all counts, very different from the United States. As in much of Europe, health care in Denmark is financed by taxes, and most services are free" (Bhanoo, 1/11).

---

This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.