Top enablers and
challenges for
eHealth in Finland
Jari Porrasmaa 3.9.2013
ICT and eHealth in Finland outside and inside views
2 3.9.2013
Etunimi Sukunimi
OUTSIDE VIEW:
General ICT
and
eHealth in Finland
”The global leaders—Denmark, Finland,
and Sweden—have all implemented
national-level strategies to drive and
coordinate health IT adoption.”
Weaknesses and threats also identified
3 3.9.2013
Etunimi Sukunimi
4 3.9.2013
Etunimi Sukunimi
INSIDE VIEW ON EHEALTH
HEALTH IT
DISASTER !!!
MONEY WASTED !!!
5 3.9.2013
Etunimi Sukunimi
6 3.9.2013
Etunimi Sukunimi
TOP 3 challenges:
 Very fragmented decision making, too many organizations with conflicting
interests, small organizations do not have sufficient procurement power
and know-how
 Political discussion on re-organising social and healthcare is on-going
 Health IT market is too centralized and controlled by a few vendors, many
interoperability specifications exist but have steep learning curve (need to
lower barrier of interoperability spefications to enable new innovative
SMEs to enter the market)
 Culture of co-operation not strong enough, shared vision and commitment
to work together needs work ( Sweden is an examplary country )
 (eHealth strategy needs an update)
 (quite old and complicated data protection legislation)
 (focus on initial investment and unable to see the development potential of
new solutions)
7 3.9.2013
Etunimi Sukunimi
TOP 3 enablers:
 Existing national infrastructure and services - enable change in way
healthcare is delivered
– ePrescription, national patient record archive and patient access to all information
– (Plan to start building a national Service Oriented Architecture - Look at what Estonia
has done!!!)
 Citizens want eHealth, no-fear about eHealth - rather they demand that
their information is accessible and shared with the care chain
 National services enforce interoperability standards and specifications
on systems (international standards eg. CDA R2 and national IGs) legislation mandating the use of national services
 (level of readiness and know-how within healthcare professionals is
quite high)
 (fragmentation of eHealth field is recognized and plans to unify the
field are being developed)
 (highly structured data, possibilities improving clinical process and
decision support - secondary uses for research etc)
8 3.9.2013
Etunimi Sukunimi
Thank you!
(image from visitfinland.com)
Lenght of day on 17.6.2013
BERLIN:
16h 49m 21s
HELSINKI:
18h 54m 34s
9 3.9.2013
ROVANIEMI:
24h
00m 00s
Etunimi Sukunimi
Sources
 Benchmarking ICT use among General Practitioners in
Europe - Final Report, 2008, European Commision
 Explaining international IT application leadership: Health
IT, september 2009, ITIF
 Peer Review eHealth Strategy and Action Plan of Finland in
a European Context (2013)
– final draft, available at www.stm.fi (direct link)
– http://www.stm.fi/c/document_library/get_file?folderId=6556944&na
me=DLFE-26602.pdf
 TOP-3 listing, opinions from Anne Kallio & Hannu Hämäläinen
(Ministry of Social Affairs and Health), Antti Iivanainen & Heikki
Onnela (Helsinki / APOTTI), Maritta Korhonen (National
Institute of Health and Welfare) , Karri Vainio (Association of
Finnish Local and Regional Authorities) and Marina Lindgren
(National social insurance institution)
10 3.9.2013
Etunimi Sukunimi