Atlas in progress - health care for patients with chronic illness

Over the last 7 years the Norwegian health atlas service has produced a total of 11 atlases covering subjects such as psychiatric health services, gynecology, orthopedics, specialist health services for children and for the elderly and healthcare quality to mention some. The form of all 11 atlases has been more or less the same since the first atlas was published in 2015. Over time we have realized that our atlas "products" could and should be more easily accessible, to better serve as a tool for improving health care services. Therefore, as part of the process of creating our latest atlas, the Atlas of health care for patients with chronic illness, we have set about reinventing the visual expression of the net-based presentation. The Atlas of health care for patients with chronic illness also provides the first opportunity to explore the possibilities and limitations of a unique new data set covering most government-funded health care in Norway for a time period of 4 years, where we can follow each patient across levels of care. Since the publication of the first health atlas for Norway in 2015, much attention has been given to geographic variation in the use of health services. However, as far as we can see little has changed - the atlases have sparked discussions, but not as much action from the decisionmakers. It is clear to us that to spark real change, we must engage more and better with the intended users of the atlases - leaders and decisionmakers, health care professionals and patients and indeed the national ministry of health. Finding ways to achieve this will be a main focus for our efforts in the coming years.