Why Does Denmark Lead the Way for Digital Healthcare?

Posted on January 12, 2010 by Jeffrey Newman

Denmark has spearheaded the use of electronic healthrecords and use of telemedicine via the internet to assist doctors in treating their patients. There are a number of telemedicine projects allowing monitoring patients in their home saves doctors an average of 50 minutes a day in administrative work. Apparently Denmark’s success may relate to its small size and homogeneous population as well as its regulated population. However, what it does is not complicated. One hospital uses IBM software that takes data from the patient’s records and superimposes it on a three dimensional image of the human body. This allows the doctor to quickly assess the person’s medical history and the doctor can click on ailments to get more info. Since most experts agree that institution of these systems will save money, lives and reduce time expenditure all with off the shelf existing technologies, the question remains is why the United States isn’t advancing more quickly like Denmark?