‘Tear down the wall between the regions’ and municipalities’ IT systems’
2022-02-23
Three quick questions to Amelie Tarschys Ingre (Liberal Party), new Chair of Region Stockholm’s Innovation and Development Committee with responsibility for, among other things, digitalisation, eHealth and life sciences.
You took over your party colleague Daniel Forslund’s portfolio at the turn of the year. What are you most looking forward to working on?
– I am looking forward to making the everyday lives of patients and healthcare workers easier. Everybody knows that digitalisation provides fantastic opportunities, especially in health and social care. We have already come a long way, but unfortunately, in certain sectors we have built parallel systems that do not communicate with each other. This creates frustrating extra work for healthcare workers, resulting in poorer accessibility and continuity for patients.
– I want to make it easier for both patients and healthcare workers by helping to tear down some digital walls, especially the one between health and social care (in other words, between the regions’ and municipalities’ various IT systems).
An election campaign will soon be underway. Which issue will be debated the most?
– It is impossible to predict, but personally I will continue to work to improve accessibility and cut waiting times. This includes ensuring that healthcare workers do not spend time doing unnecessary administration.
– In the run-up to the election, another important issue is prioritising the care and health of elderly people. With new digital services being developed, elderly people must begin to be included to a much greater extent.
Will the trend within your areas of responsibility be principally driven by the business sector or the region’s own companies and administration?
– I think both, and we must work together. We are trying, for instance with the help of the region’s innovation fund, to encourage our approximately 45 000 employees to work and think innovatively. A lot of innovation work is also going on in the business sector. My role as a politician is, in many respects, to ensure that rigid bureaucracy and obsolete regulations do not throw a spanner in the works of necessary improvements. At the same time, it is, of course, important that all the changes are well thought out and not hurried.
Amelie Tarschys Ingre was interviewed by Johannes Hylander, Founding Partner and CDO at New Republic. ‘Three Quick Questions…’ is a series of interviews conducted by New Republic.