The European Institute for Innovation through Health Data

The European Institute for Innovation through Health Data (i~HD, www.i-hd.eu) has been formed as one of the key sustainable entities arising from the Electronic Health Records for Clinical Research (IMI-JU-115189) and SemanticHealthNet (FP7-288408) projects, in collaboration with several other European projects and initiatives supported by the European Commission. i~HD is a European not-for-profit body, registered in Belgium through Royal Assent. i~HD has been established to tackle areas of challenge in the successful scaling up of innovations that critically rely on high-quality and interoperable health data. It will specifically address obstacles and opportunities to using health data by collating, developing, and promoting best practices in information governance and in semantic interoperability. It will help to sustain and propagate the results of health information and communication technology (ICT) research that enables better use of health data, assessing and optimizing their novel value wherever possible. i~HD has been formed after wide consultation and engagement of many stakeholders to develop methods, solutions, and services that can help to maximize the value obtained by all stakeholders from health data. It will support innovations in health maintenance, health care delivery, and knowledge discovery while ensuring compliance with all legal prerequisites, especially regarding the insurance of patient's privacy protection. It is bringing multiple stakeholder groups together so as to ensure that future solutions serve their collective needs and can be readily adopted affordably and at scale

Open government data application possibilities in Estonian nutrition sector

The aim of the current piece is to investigate Open Government Data application possibilities by the example of Estonian nutrition sector. The piece goes through defining various data types and analyzing Open Government Data situation in different countries. By comparing the recent developments, it finds Estonia’s lag on Open Government Data developments compared to many other countries. By investigating more thoroughly current situation in Estonian e-service developments in healthcare, it presents the lack of success in dealing with innovation in a public sector organization. Based on existing e-services, examples are presented to illustrate the benefits and advantages of using Open Government Data in nutrition sector. By conducting a research in Estonian nutrition sector, the piece finds that awareness-level and usage of public sector e-services among people interested in healthy nutrition is low. Based on empirical internet-based research, information gathered visiting public sector events and questionnaire conducted in Estonian nutrition sector, the piece suggests that there should be a clear strategy towards Open Government Data by finding resources to establish stable version of Open Government Data Portal, giving a strong political signal towards Open Government Data and using the support of Estonian Open Data Community to facilitating events where the creation of pilot e-services using Open Government Data would be addressed.http://www.ester.ee/record=b4095551~S

International Profiles of Health Care Systems, 2011

This publication presents overviews of the health care systems of Australia, Canada, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States. Each overview covers health insurance, public and private financing, health system organization, quality of care, health disparities, efficiency and integration, use of health information technology, use of evidence-based practice, cost containment, and recent reforms and innovations. In addition, summary tables provide data on a number of key health system characteristics and performance indicators, including overall health care spending, hospital spending and utilization, health care access, patient safety, care coordination, chronic care management, disease prevention, capacity for quality improvement, and public views