Specification of National Health Portal: A review in Selected Countries

Introduction: Information technology has an important role in scientific, social, economic and health advancement. National health portals though an integrated access to resources, applications and databases, can provide access to a wide range of sources of information for patients and health-care providers. Therefore, the present study was conducted to review the structural and content features of national health portal in selected countries and make recommendations for developing such portals in Iran.

Methods: : In this descriptive and applied study, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, India, Australia and the Netherlands were selected for investigation. Using a checklist, we observed and compared the content and structural features of the health portals in the selected countries.

Results: All the portals have common features such as patients' and physicians' access to public health information, medical and health information, physicians' access to patients' health data, capability of search and navigation, security mechanisms and possibility to send feedbacks to authorities and managers of the portal.

Conclusion Developing a national health portal with all the desired features and functionalities requires a strategy for development, updating and continuous users' needs assessments.