Healthcare informatics in Finland: current status and future
prospects
Dr Persephone Doupi and Dr Pekka Ruotsalainen describe
Finland’s approach to interoperability in healthcare and welfare.
abstract
National strategies for ICT deployment in Finnish healthcare have been
closely connected with developments in overall healthcare and welfare
policy planning. Generally, ICT has been viewed as the driving force in
triggering and supporting the redesign of the healthcare system.
The 1996 strategy of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health aimed at
supporting continuity of healthcare and creating seamless service chains.
In the 1998 update, further focus was placed on interoperability of
digital records and high-level security. The national EHR implementation
programme began compiling the minimum common data set in 2001, and by the
target year of 2007 all systems must be certified for interoperability and
security.
The national secure communication architecture is being defined using
ISO standards and specifically defined legislation. Integration on the
regional and national levels will be achieved on the basis of HL7
standardised messaging.
Future plans include closer integration of healthcare and socialcare,
development of mobile computing applications and citizen-oriented ehealth
services, such as a national health portal.
Br J Healthcare Comput Info Manage 2004; 21(10): 20–3.
