Rikshandboken - The National Handbook for Child Health Services

Equal, equitable, and high quality child health services

The web-based Rikshandboken (RHB) aims to contribute to equal, equitable, and high quality child health services (CHS) by providing quality-assured guidelines to the CHS professionals in all Swedish counties/regions. This is expected to reduce the need to develop local guidelines and routines and assure effective use of resources.

Open access website since 2012

RHB was established as an initiative of the Swedish Paediatric Society in 2005, providing knowledge- and methodological support for CHC personnel based on the previous national CHS programme. Initially, RHB was a password-protected website exclusively for use by professionals. Since 2012, RHB has been produced by Inera AB, which is owned by the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions and is in charge of coordinating and developing digital services for citizens, professionals and decision-makers. Since then, RHB has been an open-access website and has been smartphone compatible via responsive design.

Editorial board supports the editors

The editors at RHB are supported by an editorial board consisting of representatives from the county/regional central child health services units (chief medical officers, CHC coordinator/specialist nurses and psychologists). The editorial board communicates opinions, requests, and needs from the CHS users to the editors and invite authors and reviewers from different areas of specialisation: paediatricians, CHS nurses, psychologists, speech therapists, dieticians, physiotherapist and others.

Since 2015, a new national CHS programme is part of the updated RHB. The homepage is designed to provide an overview of the RHB’s content. There are clickable tabs to web pages detailing the CHS programme as well as information and methodologic guidance for professionals working in the CHS. These webpages include links to regional documents and websites in different counties/regions, and links to government websites.

News and research

On the homepage there are also clickable tabs to news about RHB, the CHS, research and development projects, and a CHS newsletter. The newsletter is also distributed periodically to subscribers, providing information about the latest updates and new research. RHB also include links to 1177.se, another website produced by Inera AB, that offers general health guidance to citizens. CHS nurses recommend that parents use 1177.se when they search for health information related to children on the Internet. 

Related information

Swedish Child health services