DEBATE. Welfare requires a well-functioning national digital infrastructure

The government's Welfare Commission will meet on September 29. It will discuss the opportunities of digitalization for welfare. The Commission's remit was already large before the coronavirus pandemic. The Commission consists of responsible ministers, senior representatives of municipalities and regions, and trade union representatives. It is now high time to make decisive decisions that can enable digitization to become a tool for higher quality and lower costs in the public sector as well.

The pandemic has shone a spotlight on elderly care and now an increased ambition has been announced. The inquiry "Framtidens teknik i omsorgens tjänst", SOU 2020:14, has recently identified the main obstacles to the widespread introduction of welfare technology in elderly care. Among the six barriers, the issue of lack of digital infrastructure, both in terms of technical infrastructure and digital information exchange, is most acute.

The report makes it clear that there is currently no modern national digital infrastructure that ensures secure and cost-effective digital information exchange between welfare actors.

The need for a digital infrastructure and common national rules that span all levels of society is necessary to strengthen confidence in society's ability to create security and stability, as well as access to good and equal welfare. Government governance is of great importance in driving forward digital development in municipalities and regions. In addition, local development resources would be freed up and could instead be used to drive innovation and business development.

The funds currently given directly to municipalities could be used more effectively to develop a sustainable common national digital infrastructure if they were given to a coordinating authority, together with a remit that includes both responsibility and mandate. For example, the Agency for Digital Government, DIGG, together with Inera, could be tasked with ensuring that the development includes standards that are modern and internationally viable. We also know from experience that collaboration with the business community is a critical success factor.

How can we build a future prosperous Sweden if we cannot make use of the information that currently exists in silos, in the form of various registers and databases? If we are also to be able to safely use AI in welfare, the information problem becomes even more important to solve. Today's welfare system is based on both traditional and digital efforts together providing care, equal treatment and security for everyone involved. Unfortunately, today the neglected digital infrastructure is an inhibiting factor in achieving these goals. It is positive that the budget has now provided funds to develop Sweden digitally. Unfortunately, it is not clear what it intends to do, nor is it sufficiently generous with the funds provided.

Together with stronger national governance of the opportunities that digitalization could provide in terms of information management in the coronavirus crisis, we are confident that a similar situation in the future will be managed with more limited consequences than today.

The report "Future technology in the service of care", SOU 2020:14, provides the basis needed for the government and parliament to make decisions that bring us closer to a unified national healthcare that takes advantage of the opportunities of digitization in a powerful way.

Now let the next steps be concrete activities. Start by quickly having the appropriate coordinating authority develop a concrete proposal for what the new national digital infrastructure should look like. The time to act is now - for a welfare Sweden with the individual's best interests at heart.

Monica Persson, Chairman, Swedish Association of Social Welfare Managers (FSS)
Johan Magnusson, Associate Professor, SCDI, University of Gothenburg
Magnus Mähring, Professor, House of Innovation and SCDI, Stockholm School of Economics
Åsa Zetterberg, Director of the Swedish IT & Telecom Association
Per-Olof Sjöberg, Head of Business and Innovation Area Digitalization, RISE
Ulrika Lindstrand, President of the Swedish Association of Engineers
Peter Graf, Chairman, Forum for Health Policy, CEO, Tiohundra AB
Jonny Holmström, Professor, SCDI, Umeå University