Tax money is not infinite - report from Region Skåne's seminar on E-health and digitization and the new welfare state

Last week I participated in a meeting organized by Region Skåne. It was a very interesting meeting between present and future, politics and reality. But it was a meeting that once again left me frustrated and questioning.

Why buy several similar systems when one should be enough? Tax money is not infinite - stop thinking in silos! - In a digital society, we should think holistically to safeguard the best interests of the individual in all contexts, i.e. data should not have to be registered more than once in a system!
Seminar participants agreed that existing procurement rules and processes are both outdated and time-consuming. There also seems to be a consensus that public purchasers need to be more daring and push the boundaries in order to create the conditions for new collaborations, for example in procurement.

Another issue that came up was "standards". Someone has to dare to point with their whole hand and say what applies when the new digital home is actually built. The lack of standards, both technical and semantic, creates uncertainty and drives costs. SALAR, the National Board of Health and Welfare and the eHealth Agency must be much faster, clearer and timely when they now take on responsibility for the standardization issue.
To summarize the impression, it is surprising and sad that health and social care do not realize that they are also part of a society where the individual is the central focus for all actors regardless of activity. County councils, regions and the entire public sector must become better at seeing their activities from an individual's perspective - not putting themselves at the center.