Norhealth: Norwegian Health Information System

Abstract

Norhealth (www.norgeshelsa.no) is a web-based health information system that monitors health and health related conditions, including risk- and protective factors, over time. Norhealth was developed to create a knowledge base for health promotion and prevention strategies in Norway and is targeted at politicians, decision makers, media, students and health professionals. Norhealth has a Norwegian and English version. Users of Norhealth can create their own tables, graphs, time series, maps and radar diagrams. Most Norhealth elements can be exported to PDF and tables can also be exported to Excel. Norhealth elements can also be pasted into Word or PowerPoint. Norhealth has 40 health indicators, but aims to reach 70. The indicator list corresponds roughly to the European Community Health Indicators (ECHI) short list. Data is presented at the national and regional level and by age group and gender. Around 50 fact sheets are written in Norwegian. Future developments include linking fact sheets to figures in Norhealth, writing annual health reports, translating fact sheets to English, improving user friendliness, adding more health indicators and monitoring social inequalities in health. Conclusions: Norhealth is an interactive web-based health information system that was developed to create a knowledge base for health promotion and prevention strategies in Norway.