News
A new edition of Health Statistics in the Nordic Countries
Health Statistics in the Nordic Countries 2008, with data for 2006, is now available on NOMESCO’s web site, and it will soon be published in book form.
The same as last year, the book version contains less detail than the web version.
This edition includes historical data and detailed tables on discharges from hospital, surgical procedures and use of pharmaceutical products. The statistics are presented as crude rates and standardized rates.
Standardized rates are used in the book version.
The theme section for this year is the Health of Elderly People. This section contains information about elderly people in general and the health of elderly people. It also presents data about discharges of elderly people from hospital, their use of medication and causes of death for the most important areas.
NOMESCO’s plenary session 9-10 June 2008
NOMESCO’s annual plenary session was held on 9-10 June 2008 in Borgholm in Øland in Sweden.
The meeting began with a comprehensive report of the developments in statistics on pharmaceutical products in the Nordic countries. (The reports from the countries are to be found below).
The Nordic Centre for Classifications in Health Care then presented a report of their activities and the plans for reorganization of the centre.
There then followed a discussion of the draft of this year’s publication of Health Statistics in the Nordic Countries, and a discussion about the theme for this year, which is the Health of Elderly People.
Suggestions for the themes for 2009 and 2010 were then discussed. It was decided that the theme for 2009 shall be Quality Indicators for Hospital Services in the Nordic Countries, focussing specifically on disease-specific indicators, and the theme for 2010 shall be Health Economy, based on OECD’s manual A System of Health Account.
The following decisions were also made:
- In 2009, a new edition of Consumption of Medicines in the Nordic Countries shall be produced.
- Work shall begin with revising the report Coordination of Statistics on Causes of Death in the Nordic countries. The revised version shall also include the Baltic countries, since there is cooperation in this area.
- Finally, it was decided that work shall begin on a fourth edition of Nordic/Baltic Health Statistics. This work is expected to be completed at the beginning of 2009.
Summary of NOMESCO’s planning session, 3 December 2007 in Reykjavik
For NOMESCO, the year 2007 was also affected by the review of the institution. As for NOSOSCO, the result was that no changes will be made to the present organizational structure of NOMESCO, and it will continue to be administratively connected to the National Board of Health in Copenhagen.
At the planning session, there was a detailed report of the physical and organizational changes expected to take place at the Nordic Centre for Classifications in Health Care, where a meeting of the board was held just prior to the planning session.
In the future, cooperation with DRG will have a separate organizational framework, in which the role of the Centre has not been decided.
An important item on the agenda for the annual planning sessions is: plans and activities for the following year.
An important item was the current modernization of NOMESCO’s publication Health Statistics in the Nordic Countries, and modernization of the website, in cooperation with NOSOSCO.
Another important item was NOMESCO’s responsibility and cooperation with the Nordic Centre for Classifications in Health Care regarding maintenance of classifications and future theme sections. The theme for 2009 will probably be quality indicators. The theme for 2008 is the health of elderly people.
In addition, there is a desire to have a special publication on pharmaceutical products. It is also desired to continue to publish Nordic/Baltic Health Statistics.
The plenary meeting in 2009 will be held 15-16 June in Denmark, and the planning session 8 December in Finland.
