About Health Atlas
In Norway, there is a goal that the entire population should have an equal provision of healthcare services across geography and social groups. The Health Atlas is a tool for comparing the population's use of healthcare services in different geographical areas, regardless of where the patients are treated.
Photo: Helseatlas
The regional health enterprises have a "duty of care" to ensure that the population in their catchment area is offered adequate specialist healthcare services. This "duty of care" underpins the health atlas analyses of variations in the use of healthcare services. Unjustified variation may indicate that the "duty of care" is not being sufficiently upheld.
The health atlas is an online mapping service. The atlas is a three-part product consisting of an interactive map of Norway, fact sheets, and a report that explains the methodology and provides a more detailed description of each patient selection. The health atlas is developed and delivered by the Centre for Clinical Documentation and Evaluation (SKDE) in Health North, and by Health Førde in Health West. Health North and Health West were commissioned by the Ministry of Health and Care Services in 2015 to develop a national health atlas in collaboration with the Norwegian Directorate of Health.
The health atlas is developed by the Analysis Section at SKDE.