Establishing Norway as a Health Data Leader. What Will It Take?

Norway is globally recognized as a leader in the healthcare space. It now has a remarkable opportunity to unlock numerous benefits by strengthening its health data ecosystem by enhancing access to health data for secondary use. Doing so would strengthen the country’s already excellent healthcare system, enable more and better research and expanded innovation, and support development of a value-creating healthcare industry. This report, which has been prepared for the Conference Norway Life Science 2024 (an Oslo Science City Arena Conference), explores expanding health data access – a key priority outlined in last year’s BCG report Building Norway’s Life Science Industry that identified five priorities for strengthening the life science industry within the country.

Norway has collected and curated high-quality health data for several decades. Combined with high levels of digital maturity and strong trust in public institutions, this gives the country a positional advantage. With timely collaboration – among government, healthcare providers, regulators, academic researchers, and industry – the country can overcome obstacles and improve health data access. Norway must act quickly, however, because the opportunity costs that come with inaction are serious. As other countries reap the benefits mentioned above, they will develop dominant positions within knowledge areas of strategic importance for Norway.

Unlocking health data value for Norway lies with determining the highest value secondary use cases for health data and prioritizing initiatives to pursue in the immediate future. This report recommends priority actions across five areas. By taking prompt action on each of them, Norway’s government, academic, and industry leaders have the opportunity to work together to drive life science industry acceleration, research growth, and health system improvement.