ICT systems, welfare technology and organization of health services

Knowledge areas:

ICT in health services - Electronic patient records - Search engine and database technology - Welfare technology - Health service organisation - Health management and leadership - Health policy

This is a mutual interaction between the population's needs in terms of health and welfare, organisation of the services and technological possibilities in ICT systems. These are systems that are largely adopted by individual citizens.

However, the systems have to a large extent developed independently, and the fragmented nature of the systems is a challenge. ICT facilitates new solutions and new ways of organisation.

We want to establish a research structure large and robust enough to do research on infrastructure in itself and to contribute to more integrated solutions. A research infrastructure for registration and supervision will form a basis for developing more effective logistics in the health and welfare sector.

The need to use technology to make the services more efficient, and to enable more people to live longer in their own homes, is also increasingly recognised.

Welfare technological solutions have to meet important needs in terms of quality of life, user friendliness, accommodation to services and environment, robustness and security.

The increasing financial burden of governments combined with a desire to improve the resource allocation to health services has put much pressure on the public health sector. Also, the introduction of new medical technology and therapies, combined with patient and citizen concerns over the access to and quality of health care, have given rise to new demands within health services.

Health economists have furthermore displayed much concern over the inefficiency of health services, as there is little evidence of significant improvements in health outcomes despite the ever-increasing health spending.

The ambition of this research structure is therefore also to stimulate research that focuses on the developing relationship between the state and healthcare actors such as politicians, insurers, providers, physicians, patients, and suppliers, with an emphasis on the organisational, managerial and policy aspects of health care delivery.

Projects:

• Hospital architecture
• Health inequalities and technology
• Logistics structure and control of Norwegian healthcare logistics
• Improved patient flow and resource utilisation at St. Olavs hospital
• Platforms for healthcare and welfare services in municipalities
• New Public Management in healthcare
• Configuration of patient data
• Coordination and resource allocation in complex health systems, the case of multimorbid patients