Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) are increasingly applied in chronic care due to their many functionalities and synergies with current healthcare policies. The participatory potential of PROs is especially emphasised in the Danish context. This review scrutinises the association between PRO and patient participation in chronic care. This scoping review adheres to PRISMA-ScR guidelines, and the synthesis is based on narrative and thematic analyses. Eighty-four articles were deemed eligible. The association between PRO and patient participation regards seven themes: PRO development, response rates and patient burden, patient empowerment and self-management, display and quality of data, patient-clinician communication, shared decision-making, and organisational and attitudinal aspects. Lack of knowledge, actor attitudes, organisational setup, and technological infrastructure act as the main barriers. The connection between PROs and patient participation is dialectic and unfolds in three phases-before, during, and after patient-clinician consultation. Knowledge regarding the last phase is particularly scarce. Henceforth, studies should address how to include a broader segment of patients, PROs participatory effects over time and PROs impact on patients' everyday lives. The review provides knowledge concerning the association between PROs and patient participation to enhance future chronic care, research, and discussions in the area.

As digital healthcare services are expanding in use and purpose in a Danish context so are the functionalities embedded in these, constituting citizens’ access to healthcare services and personal health data. In Denmark, the impact of inequalities in digital healthcare remains largely unexplored, making it crucial to pay close attention to this aspect as the digital transformation of the sector progresses. According to the Danish Health Act (2019), the Danish healthcare system is required to ensure easy and equal access to healthcare, high-quality treatment, coherent patient pathways, freedom of choice, easy access to information, transparency, and short waiting times for every citizen. These are focal law-based requirements influenced by the digitalisation of healthcare. Hence, based on insights from a highly digitalised country, in this case, Denmark, this paper aims to initiate a discussion on inequities in digital healthcare, address current challenges, and consider future directions by elaborating on conceptual, ethical, evidence-informed, and methodological issues linked to inequities in digital healthcare. Specifically, this paper discusses why inequities in digital healthcare in a Danish context need increased attention, how health equity is embedded in Danish legislation and how it can be approached from an ethical perspective. The central focus revolves around the essential principles of empowerment, emancipation, and equity, which are being highlighted to emphasise that the digitalisation of healthcare should actively work towards preventing and avoiding the perpetuation of healthcare inequalities. The paper concludes by discussing future directions for ensuring a more sustainable, robust, and equitable digital healthcare system.

Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) digitalization and integration into clinical practice has widened its purpose, which makes it relevant to reconceptualize PRO accordingly. Therefore, this study aims to describe and critically discuss the purposes of PRO and to suggest an interdisciplinary definition of PRO aligned with current applications. The findings in this study are based on a formerly conducted scoping review on PRO and patient participation; hence, a sub-study focusing on the purpose of PRO. The purposes of PRO pertain to research and drug testing; quality and economy; patient-centered care; politicization and democratization; and organization and culture. The suggested definition describes PRO as a validated questionnaire; developed in collaboration between patients, clinicians, and other pertinent stakeholders; systematically applied; mediated digitally or paper-based; completed directly by the patient, with assistance or by a qualified proxy; composed of generic, disease-specific, condition-specific or preference-based measures; consisting of content pertaining to the patient’s physical and mental health condition, functioning, symptoms, well-being or health-related quality of life (HRQoL); providing objective and/or subjective outcomes, and individual and/or population data. An alternative understanding of PRO is meant to enhance the link between purposes and definitions of PRO, facilitating interdisciplinary stakeholder discussions on PRO, potentially improving future PRO interventions.

This paper elucidates how the functionality of Patient-Reported Outcome (PRO) has evolved due to its digital transformation. Hence, PROs traditional use within healthcare is described and compared to the application of electronic PROs (ePROs); leading to a discussion regarding PROs functionality. The literature included in this paper stems from a systematic scoping review. The digitalization supplements former functionalities of PRO by enabling timely, accessible, systematical and progression oriented data; however, further improvements are necessary to enhance PROs application in current healthcare.

Citizens’ access to their online health information is pivotal. Therefore, this study examines citizens’ access to their online health information across countries and healthcare settings. The study is based on a survey design targeting the 98 IMIA representatives of the national societies. Results indicate that Test results and Medications are the two types of online information that citizens in most cases have access to. Ten countries provide citizens access to all the different types of information included in the study. That relatively few countries provide citizens access to all the included types of online health information underscores the importance of continuous emphasis on accessibility and research within this field.

The quality of the digital healthcare systems relies on citizens’ willingness to share their digital health data. This makes citizens’ use, perceptions, and attitudes towards digital healthcare systems pivotal. The study presented here examines Nordic citizens’ willingness to share digital health data with healthcare providers and for research purposes. A cross-sectional study design was applied to obtain answers from citizens in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. The results are based on answers from 5078 citizens across the five countries. Results based on descriptive statistics indicate that the majority of Nordic citizens are willing to share health data that has clinical relevance with healthcare providers and for research purposes. The odds ratio analysis reveals that citizens’ odds of sharing health data decreases with age and increases with the level of education. Conclusively, this study shows that most Nordic citizens are willing to share their health data, influenced by age and level of education. Awareness of and efforts to support citizens who are unable or unwilling to actively use and engage with the digital healthcare system is recommended.