INDICATORS

ICELAND
Data availability by Country Report: 46% of ECHI shortlist indicators are available
in international data sources. Much data are missing in all ECHI shortlist sections,
but the availability is particularly poor concerning Health Status indicators, above all
prevalences of various diseases and functional limitations.
Data availability by ECHIM Survey: 60% of ES indicators are available at a national
level. Health Status and Health Determinants data are largely missing, resulting from
the fact that HIS have been very limited, and HES have not been conducted at all. For
Health Care data availability is slightly better.
Data availability in European context: Data availability in Iceland is among the lowest
in Europe according to both CR and ES. The obvious reasons are the lack of HES and
narrow HIS.
Overall situation of data sources: Directorate of Health (www.landlaeknir.is),
Statistics Iceland (www.statice.is), Social Security Institute, The Cancer Institute and
The Icelandic Heart Association (www.hjartarannsokn.is) are the main public health
data producers. In general their functionality and co-operation are fairly good. The
exceptions are data collection from private practising specialists and in outpatient care.
Data collection from private practising specialists is however under way at the moment.
Health care centres, hospitals and nursing homes on the other hand routinely provide
data. There has been a lack of standardised routine HIS in the past, one such survey
was however conducted in 2007 by the Public Health Institute. The implementation of
EHIS is still unclear. Record linkage is possible for the purposes of scientific research.
However, permissions need to be obtained from the Data Protection Authority and
The National Bioethics Committee before any links are made. The situation is likely to
improve so that the permissions will be easier to obtain.
Health reporting: The Directorate of Health collects data and compiles statistics on
a number of health care issues, such as the utilisation of hospital and primary health
care services. It also produces statistics on communicable diseases, other diseases and
causes of death, on surgical procedures, induced abortions and sterilisations, as well as
collecting data on prescription drug use, patient complaints and maintaining a national
register on accidents. The data can be downloaded in English. Several institutions, such
as the Social Insurance Institute publish annual statistics pertaining to their activities.
They include statistics on the number of contacts with private practising specialists,
disability benefits, cost of drugs etc.
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