Sweden completes probe into troubled healthcare record systems

Sweden’s E-health Agency has presented its findings on problems with healthcare and medical record systems, following a government-commissioned review, SVT reports.

The review was prompted by failed rollouts of systems including Cosmic and Milennium in regions across the country. The agency found that procurement is difficult because there are few suppliers, switching systems is costly and time-consuming, and information is hard to share between different systems.

“Our assessment is that more open healthcare information environments are needed,” said Thomas Pettersson Westerberg, a department head at the agency, at a news conference on Friday. The agency also called for clearer central direction and stronger interoperability, meaning systems’ ability to communicate with one another.

Regional authorities are responsible for procuring healthcare systems. SVT has reported that Cosmic has caused production losses and has been identified as a factor in seven deaths.

Social Minister Jakob Forssmed said the government had announced plans in May for a national digital infrastructure to connect medical record systems. The E-health Agency has had overall responsibility for improving information exchange between systems and organisations since June. Forssmed said a broad reform of healthcare information provision was already under way.