Sundhed.dk, the official eHealth portal for the Danish public healthcare services, has recorded a considerable increase in the number of people accessing their medical records online following television coverage, it was announced in February 2011.

Sundhed.dk achieved a record for site traffic in January 2011, during which over 333 000 different users visited the portal and altogether viewed almost 3.4 million pages. January is traditionally a month when many are seeking health information in connection with New Year resolutions. In 2011, however, the service which was of particular public interest was e-journal: more than 173 000 users sought information about it, and there were 70 000 e-journal views during the month.

E-Journal is a digital service which enables citizens to read their own hospital records, and for example to check the details and information. Following a television station's news stories about so-called 'secret codes' in medical records, many people have become concerned about the content of their records. Some viewed their electronic health records in January to investigate whether there were any of these 'secret codes'.

At the same time, website-visiting patterns show that more and more people are using sundhed.dk to view medical information from records and registers, a trend which was also observed in a survey in November 2010. This trend is further supported by the new figures. In January 2011 'personal health information' was the information service which the largest proportion of Danes wanted from their government. Whereas in January 2010, it was placed as fifth in importance out of ten types of services, now 83 % of Danes are interested in personal health information services. While the exact figure varies between sexes and age groups, almost all Danes between 15 and 69 years shared this interest.

Further information:

• Original news article - sundhed.dk (in Danish)
• E-journal - sundhed.dk (in Danish)
• Sundhed.dk
• Related ePractice news article - DK: Single access to personal health records via Sundhed.dk