erfðaskrá

Erfðaskrá refers to an Icelandic concept used in the country's social services and healthcare system. At its core, an erfðaskrá serves as a comprehensive record or register that tracks the health and care-related history of individuals, particularly children, from birth to their 18th birthday.

The erfðaskrá contains information on an individual's birth, parental involvement, developmental milestones, health diagnoses, treatments, and other significant events that occur during their childhood. This collected data is aimed at providing a complete portrait of the individual's health and well-being.

Erfðaskrur have been in use in Iceland since 2007, when the government approved the creation of a national register to monitor and improve the country's child health services. The idea behind erfðaskrur is to allow healthcare workers and social services professionals to access and analyze this information, enabling them to identify trends, model forecasts, and develop targeted interventions aimed at improving child health outcomes.

While the registration itself is largely anonymous, individuals are grouped into 'cohorts' based on their birth year, which helps professionals analyze and compare data within these groups. Access to an individual's erfðaskrá data requires permission from their guardians, as stated by the Icelandic legislation.

Early studies suggest that the use of erfðaskrur has facilitated a crucial shift towards more proactive preventive measures and interventions in Icelandic healthcare, aiming to keep children healthier for the long term. Ongoing monitoring of the effectiveness of this approach is still ongoing, and discussions around erfðaskrá include addressing data privacy and confidentiality concerns.