Patientdelning

Patientdelning is the practice of sharing information about a patient between healthcare providers and, in some cases, with the patient themselves, to support safe, continuous care. The goal is to ensure that relevant health information is available where and when it is needed, reducing duplicative testing, avoiding errors, and enabling coordinated treatment across different care settings.

The information shared typically includes diagnoses, medications, allergies, test results, treatment plans, and care histories. It may occur across hospitals, primary care, home care, laboratories, pharmacies, and other parts of the health and social care system. The extent of sharing is shaped by professional needs, patient consent, and legal rules, and is supported by health information systems and data exchange platforms.

In Sweden, a prominent example of patientdelning is the national patient overview system (NPÖ), which allows authorized healthcare professionals to access a concise summary of a patient’s current care information across providers. Access is restricted to those involved in the patient’s care and is governed by data protection laws, with logs and safeguards to protect privacy. Patients typically have rights to access their own information and to be informed about who has viewed it, subject to applicable limits and exemptions in emergencies or for public safety.

Legal and ethical considerations include compliance with data protection regulations, minimizing the amount of information shared to what is necessary, obtaining informed consent where feasible, and implementing strong security measures such as authentication and encryption. Challenges include interoperability between IT systems, data quality, and balancing patient privacy with the benefits of information sharing.