Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41204650›Full record

ArticleHealth information management : journal of the Health Information Management Association of Australia2026

Digitising health history: The creation, function and implementation of the Norwegian Health Archives Registry.

Gina Helstad, Pierre Lison, Elin Tuveng, Kari Nytrøen

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Health information management : journal of the Health Information Management Association of Australia, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. The intersection of health information management and clinical registries.Health information management : journal of the Health Information Management Association of Australia · 2026
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Gina HelstadThe Norwegian Health Archives, Norway.ORCID 0009-0008-3449-8691
Pierre LisonThe Norwegian Computing Center, Norway.ORCID 0000-0002-7649-0689
Elin TuvengThe Norwegian Health Archives, Norway.ORCID 0000-0001-5593-8387
Kari NytrøenThe Norwegian Health Archives, Norway.ORCID 0000-0002-4827-4700

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

contextThe Norwegian Health Archives Registry (NHAR) is a national initiative dedicated to digitising, centralising, and providing access to historical full-text patient health records (PHRs) for research purposes. Established in 2019, NHAR includes PHRs from the deceased population in Norway's specialist healthcare services, offering a unique long-term data source for future research. NHAR has now digitised 1.7 million paper-based PHRs, covering medical history dating back to 1875. The registry is now expanding to include digital-born PHRs.

aimThis article describes NHAR's innovation potential as a health registry, its data management processes, and the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) tools to facilitate data management and research in compliance with strict health data regulations. PRACTICE INNOVATION: NHAR's data value chain includes structured metadata acquisition, large-scale digitisation and secure data delivery for research. The workflow includes a custom optical character recognition (OCR) tool tailored to Norwegian medical terminology, concept-based search tools for unstructured clinical full text and robust strategies for long-term data management. A novel AI-based de-identification system automatically detects and masks personal identifiers in digitised PHRs. LESSONS LEARNED: Despite these innovations, challenges persist in processing handwritten and historical PHRs due to OCR limitations and language-specific complexities. Key challenges include improving data quality, enhancing OCR accuracy and refining AI tools for information retrieval, data extraction and de-identification.

conclusionNHAR offers significant potential for interdisciplinary research across various medical fields.Implications for health information management practice:NHAR establishes a foundation for secure access to historical health data and introduces advanced data management strategies to facilitate future research.

Indexed as

Electronic Health RecordsRegistriesArtificial IntelligenceData ManagementHealth Records, PersonalHumansNorwaycomputerised health recordsdata protectionhealth information managementhealth policymedical records systemspersonal artificial intelligenceprivacyregistriesretrospective studies

Identifiers

PMID41204650
PMCPMC12946238

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.