VOPD and iHAC Policy Brief: Governance for Integrated Healthcare Solutions
The new Policy Brief offers insights from the Nordic countries on how governance can drive the development of integrated healthcare and care services using distance-spanning solutions.
Four key messages
Based on seven years of research, including document analysis, surveys, and interviews with key informants from 45 regions and municipalities (2018–2024), the brief provides evidence-based policy recommendations.
It delivers four key messages to guide national, regional, and local policymakers in fostering collaboration and innovation for effective healthcare integration:
1. Governance – the ecosystem components to secure trust
2. Organizational readiness
3. Sustainability and environmental impacts
4. The time to act is now (well, it was actually yesterday).
iHAC project management will promote the conclusions of our work, and this policy brief during spring and autumn 2025.
Niclas Forsling Project Manager for iHAC from the Centre for Rural Medicine, Region Västerbotten, notes: “Leadership is crucial for successful implementation of distance-spanning solutions, yet difficult to define.” This publication offers a clear, practical framework to address that challenge.
The author of the Policy brief is;
Helinä Melkas, LUT University, Lahti, Finland
Gunn Hilde Rotvold, Norwegian Centre for E-health Research, Tromsø, Norway
Viktoria Zander, Mälardalen University, Eskilstuna, Sweden
Siri Bjørvig, Norwegian Centre for E-health Research, Tromsø, Norway
Christine Gustafsson, Sophiahemmet University, Stockholm, Sweden, and affiliated researcher, Mälardalen University, Eskilstuna, Sweden
