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5. Roles of actors in development and use of e-Health standards

There are various actors related to the development and use of e-Health standards. Many of these actors are key stakeholders in the development and use of standards and solutions or products based on e-Health standards.
Actor type
Examples
Tasks related to e-Health standards
E-Health standards development organizations (SDOs)
ISO, CEN, HL7, SNOMED International, DICOM, WHO FIC, IHE, etc.
Development of e-Health standards
Standardization of health information requires a combination of technical and health care expertise.
System developers and vendors
DIPS, Visma, Cambio, UNA, Esko Systems, Mediconsult, CGI, TietoEVRY, Cerner, Epic, etc.
Data experts offer critical subject matter expertise and support to development of systems and products.
Use of e-Health standards in products
Participation in e-Health standards and implementation guide development
Health professionals and health professional organizations
Doctors, nurses, midwives, physical therapists, pharmacists etc.
Use of systems
Participation in requirements specifications for systems
Participation in e-Health standards development.
Health service provider organizations
Hospital management, health region management, health region ICT management
Funding of acquisitions
Integration of systems
Use of systems which utilise e-Health standards
Patients and patient organizations
Patients, clients, users, inhabitants
User needs must be captured
Use of systems
National authorities
Swedish eHealth agency (E-hälso­myndigheten), Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), Norwegian Directorate of Health (Helse­direktoratet), Directorate of Health (Embætti landlæknis), Danish Health Data Authority (Sundheds­datastyrelsen)
Steering and legislation
Research partnership?
Define and publish standardized data models, terminologies, code systems and respective values sets for each defined data set.
Adopt or adapt international e-Health standards for use in Nordic countries.
Promote Nordic requirements to be reflected in these international e-Health standards.
Development or steering of implementation guides.
Cooperation with each other. Engage with and learn from other countries that have a proven track record of advancing e-Health standards.