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Directorate of Health Frontpage
Directorate of Health Frontpage

The Directorate of Health

International Cooperation

-Automatic translation

The Directorate of Health is involved in various international collaborations with international organizations and associations in the Nordic countries, Europe, and globally.

Nordic cooperation

  • Outpatient services in the Nordic countries. The working group Nordisk samarbeid om standardisering, datainnsamling og benchmarking av prehospitale tjenester standardizes and collects data for measuring, evaluating, and comparing outpatient services in the Nordic countries.

  • The Svalbard group. The Chief Epidemiologist represents Iceland in a Nordic group on health risk, together with a representative from The Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management.

  • One Health Strategy Group, a group that focuses on antibiotic resistance, vaccines, rare antibodies, and anti-toxins. The Chief Epidemiologist represents Iceland in the group.

  • NOMESKO (Nordisk Medicinalstatistik Komité) is a Nordic committee on health statistics that works on ensuring that health statistics in the Nordic Countries are comparable.

  • The Nordic Center for Classifications in Health Service (Nordisk senter for klassifikationer i helsetjenesten). The center is an accredited collaborative center of the World Health Organization (WHO) in the field of classification systems (Collaborating Centre in Nordic Countries for the WHO Family of International Classifications, WHO-FIC).

  • Health Information Technology (Nordic Council of Ministers eHealth Group). The purpose is to support Nordic cooperation in health information technology.

  • Coordination of standards (Nordic eHealth Research Network (NeRN)

  • A subgroup of the Nordic Council of Ministers eHealth Group is coordinating standards to provide a realistic comparison of the health information technology between the Nordic countries for use in government policy-making.

  • The Nordic eHealth Standardization Group is a subgroup of the Nordic Council of Ministers eHealth Group that coordinates standards regarding health information exchange between healthcare institutions and patient information.

  • Telehealth Services (VOPD Working Group) A collaborative project between the Nordic countries organized by the Nordic Council of Ministers on Telehealth Services. The project aims to identify effective solutions that support telehealth services and find ways to promote their use.

  • License to practice as a healthcare professional. Cooperation on the license of practice as healthcare professionals based on the agreement on mutual recognition of the license to practice as healthcare professionals.

  • NOMBIR (Nordic Medical Birth Register). The Directorate of Health participates in a Nordic collaboration of birth registers in the Nordic countries. The cooperation increases the possibility of comparing birth outcomes between countries.

  • Nordic transplant organization Scandiatransplant.

  • Nordic cooperation on patient safety.

  • Nordic Cooperation on Alcohol and Drug Prevention

  • Nordic Cooperation on Mental Health and Wellbeing

  • Nordic Cooperation on suicide prevention

  • Nordic Cooperation on Communicable Disease Control

  • Nordic Cooperation on Nutrition

  • Nordic Network for Physical Activity

  • Nordic Cooperation in the Field of Tobacco Control

European cooperation

  • EPSO (European Partnership for Supervisory Organizations in Health Services and Social Care) is an informal cooperation platform for supervisory organizations in Europe.

  • ECDC - The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control analyses, evaluates and disseminates information on communicable diseases. The centre works with European and international institutions.

  • PaRIS project (Patient-Reported Indicators Survey). An International Survey on Outcome and Experiences of Patients with Chronic Conditions.

  • European Commission Steering Group on Health Promotion, Disease Prevention and Management of Non-Communicable Diseases (SGPP).

  • EU Health Programme. Cooperation between the EU Health Programme 2014 to 2020. National focal point meeting.

  • The European projects JA CHRODIS and JA CHRODIS+ lasted from September 2017 to August 2020. The project's main objective was to support European countries in implementing effective work in the health promotion, prevention, and treatment of chronic diseases.

  • European cooperation in the field of tobacco control. Joint Action on Tobacco (JATC).

  • Cooperation on Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention — Pompidou

  • The European project UPRIGHT lasted from January 2018 to December 2021. The main objective of this project is to develop educational materials for adolescents, which promote their well-being by enhancing their resilience and ability to cope with adolescence. The Office led Work Package 6; Dissemination, outreach, and policy recommendations.

  • European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Scientific Network on Food Consumption Data.

  • European network for the promotion of health-enhancing physical activity. HEPA Europe.

  • Schools for Health in Europe Network Foundation (SHE).

  • European Network for Positive Psychology.

  • JA IMPLEMENTAL is a European research project funded by the H2020 framework program (JA-02-2020/HADEA). Twenty-one European countries are participating in the project, but Iceland's representatives in the project come from the Ministry of Health and the Directorate of Health. The project began in the fall of 2021 and will last for three years. The project is extensive, but Iceland participates in the part that relates to implementing knowledge in suicide prevention based on the Austrian prevention model "SUPRA".

  • JA NFP4Health - The Directorate of Health participates in the project which aims to shape and coordinate the work of the national focal points for the EU4Health Programme.

  • WHO-FIC European Network. Since 2022, an employee from the National Centre for e-Health has been Iceland's representative in the European cooperation on the WHO's international classification system in health care. The aim is to strengthen European countries in the implementation and use of classification systems published and maintained by the WHO.

  • eHealth Network. Two employees from the National Centre for e-Health are Iceland's representatives in the eHealth Network organized by the European Union, which is a common forum for European countries on digital health services across borders. The employees are also represented in various sub-groups organized by the European Union regarding health services across borders.

  • EU-JAMRAI 2 (Joint Action Antimicrobial Resistance and Health-care Associated Infections) is a European collaborative project funded by the European Union Health Program (EU4Health). The Chief Epidemiologist leads Iceland's part, while the Ministry of Health, the Icelandic Food and Veterinary Authority and the Environment Agency are partners. The goal of JAMRAI 2 is action against the spread of antibiotic resistance in people, animals and the environment, in the spirit of One Health. The project concerns antibiotic stewardship, infection prevention, monitoring, access to antibiotics and raising awareness of antibiotic resistance.

  • JA PreventNCD (Joint Action Prevent Non-Communicable Diseases) is a joint project of 25 European countries. The representatives from Iceland come from the Directorate of Health, the Prime Minister's Office, Landspitali and the Primary Health Care. The aim of the project is to implement effective measures to prevent non-communicable diseases, such as cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Dóra Guðrún Guðmundsdóttir, head of division, manages the project on the well-being economy and Sólveig Karlsdóttir, project manager, manages the the dissemination of information for the entire project.

  • EU-HIP (strengthening Member States' IT systems ensuring interoperability with HERA's IT platform for intelligence gathering). A grant funded by the European Union's Health Program (EU4Health) to 14 EU/EEA countries to strengthen the countries' IT systems, including monitoring and data collection for transboundary health threats from infectious diseases, toxins, radioactivity (CBRN). The Chief Epidemiologist leads Iceland's part in collaboration with the National Center for e-Health.

International cooperation

  • World Health Organization (WHO). The Chief Epidemiologist is the national contact to the International Health Regulations, which is an international agreement with the World Health Organization (WHO), to which Iceland is a member. The Chief Epidemiologist monitors the warnings from the WHO and assesses whether it is appropriate to recommend that epidemic prevention measures be taken. The Chief Epidemiologist then sends information to the WHO about events that may threaten public health and concern the international community.

  • Cooperation with the Health For All Database (HFA-DB) held by the WHO in Europe.

  • Data dissemination to the OECD Health Statistics database.

  • Cooperation in the field of nutrition at WHO.

  • OECD Working Party on Health Care Quality and Outcomes. The working party shall review, advise, and communicate with the OECD.

  • Collaboration with the international organization SNOMED-CT International, which owns and operates one of the largest international medical vocabularies in use today.

  • International cooperation of supervising organizations.