Government approved the „Estonian e-Health Strategic Plan until 2020 “ developed by the Task Force set up at the Government Office. This is a common understanding of the health care participants of how digital solutions contribute to the improvement of the population’s health and solve health problems in Estonia.
„E-Health strategy puts into focus the development of the services enabling to prevent and solve people’s health problems,“ said the Deputy Secretary General on E-services Development and Innovation at the Ministry of Social Affairs Ain Aaviksoo, who led the Task Force. „The aim for the next year is to deploy some new service at least once per quarter or supplement the existing one.“ It is also planned to complete the developments already in progress, such as the digital reception.
The strategy addresses the quality and infrastructure of health data, personalised e-services and personal medicine, comprehensive case handling and integrating services, monitoring and analysis of the performance of health services and development of remote services.
The operational programme of implementing the approved strategy together with a funding plan and responsible persons will be presented to the Government in March 2016. Implementation of the strategy is led by the Ministry of Social Affairs, where an e-Health strategy council responsible for coordinating activities will be formed. In addition, a strong e-services development team will be established at the Ministry of Social Affairs, which will ensure the implementation of the developments in cooperation with the partners on the field of health and IT implementing bodies like the Estonian eHealth Foundation.
The e-Health Strategy was prepared as a result of one and a half years’ efforts of the Working Group that operated under the guidance of the Government Office in cooperation with the Ministry of Social Affairs. All the interested parties from among patients, doctors, hospitals, various ministries and state authorities and technology enterprises were represented in it. The activities of the Working Group were funded from the European Social Fund.
