Digital welfare services are making life easier for Danish citizens.
Launched in 2013, Denmarks Digital Welfare Strategy (2013-2020), aims to accelerate the use of ICT and welfare technology in front-line public service delivery, such as healthcare, social services, education, and care for the elderly.
The strategy is a joint public sector initiative between the Danish government, Local Government Denmark and Danish Regions, and outlines initiatives to modernise and rethink public services by improving the quality of public welfare services whilst reducing public expenditure.
Digital welfare is one of three key areas identified in Denmark’s eGovernment Strategy, which recognises Denmark’s aging population, and the projected impact this will place on health care services, care of the elderly and social services delivery.
Statistics Denmark predicts that by 2040, the number of elderly people in Denmark, will have increased by 84%, whilst the number of children and citizens of working age will remain the same as 2013.
The Danish Agency for Digitisation predicts that the decline in working age population, will also means the public sector will likely have to manage with less employees. “Public authorities must exploit digital solutions to collaborate and share knowledge and information across administrations, sectors and specialist disciplines. This will create better coordination and cohesion in public services”
Digital technologies such as automated assistive devices for eating for citizens with muscular atrophy, and equipment that enables lung patients to have their check-ups performed in their own homes, are some of the new technologies outlined in the strategy. Other intiatives include:
- Rollout of telemedicine across Denmark
- Sharing of medication records throughout the healthcare system
- Full digitision of communications across the healthcare system
- Introduction of assistive eating devices in sheltered housing
- Establishing a mobile version of the digital signature for secure log-in (NemID)
- Digital booking of hospital appointments
- Rollout of speech recognition technology for faster processing
- Development of a common telemedicine infrastructure
Chairman of the Danish Regions’ Health Innovation and Business Partnerships Committee, Poul Müller said: “I am excited that telemedicine has been given such a central place in the strategy. The goal of the regional governments is that telemedicine is to become a natural part of the healthcare system by 2020. This requires that we become even better at collaborating across the healthcare system’s different sectors; across hospitals, municipal home-care services and general practitioners.”.
Read Denmarks Digital Welfare Strategy.
Learn about Denmark’s eGovernment Strategy.
