Concerned about increased coverage in the quality registers.
Health Minister Bent Høie showed great enthusiasm for the medical quality registries when he opened the presentation of new results on Tuesday, 13th November.
Published 2/27/2026
Photo: Bent Høie
– We see that the quality registers contribute to improvements in the quality of healthcare services every year. Professionals are keen to do a good job. By providing professionals with knowledge about their own service, this will lead to improvements, said Høie during the event.
See results from all 53 quality registers here
In total, there are 53 national medical quality registers. The quality registers collect information about treatment quality and differences in treatment offerings at hospitals in Norway. On Tuesday, new results for the national medical quality registers were presented at the Cancer Association's knowledge centre in Oslo. Health Minister Bent Høie opened the event.
Introducing incentive scheme as a pilot project
– A good coverage rate and high data quality are crucial for the results to be representative of the patient group. The coverage rate is continually improving, but there are still only 24 out of 53 national medical registers that have over 80 per cent coverage at the individual level, said Høie in his opening speech.
The Health Minister wants it to be beneficial for the healthcare service to report data to the health registers and has been working for some time on an incentive scheme that can contribute to this.
– I have tasked the Norwegian Directorate of Health with implementing financial incentives for better coverage rates. From next year, 12 registers will participate in a two-year pilot scheme where the regional health enterprises will receive ISF reimbursement (activity-based funding) for each patient registered in the quality registers.
A high coverage rate in the medical quality registers contributes to the results being more suitable for uncovering actual differences in treatment offerings and quality, and will thereby help identify areas where there is a need for quality improvement in the healthcare service.
New regulation out for consultation
On Tuesday, a proposal for a new regulation for medical quality registers was also sent out for consultation. If the new regulation is approved, healthcare personnel will be obliged to report information to medical quality registers with national status.
– The fact that healthcare personnel are now obliged to report to the registers is also a measure to help increase coverage in the registers, says Høie.
Today, the vast majority of quality registers are based on consent, meaning that the patient must consent to being registered in the register. The proposal for the new regulation allows for exceptions to the consent requirement when necessary for data quality and coverage in the registers. This could help simplify the registration process for healthcare personnel.
Bent Høie believes that the quality registers contribute to better healthcare services and points out that data from the Norwegian Stroke Register shows that 10 out of 11 indicators had higher target achievement in 2017 than in 2016. Data from the Norwegian Myocardial Infarction Register shows that 8 out of 10 quality indicators had higher target achievement in 2017 than the previous year.