Fast. Forward. Finland. – Setting the eHealth benchmark

Published: 05/08/2008

PORTOROZ, SLOVENIA – (HealthTech Wire) . Finland realized its first tele-ECG projects as early as 1969. Its first cross-border teleradiology network with Iceland and Norway dates back 10-15 years. At the eHealth 2008 conference in Portoroz, Slovenia, Jarmo Reponen, president of EuroPACS, presented a nationwide survey where the figures spoke for themselves. New legislation has now been passed aimed at further promoting the application of eHealth solutions.

There are 21 hospital districts for specialized care in Finland, of which – let's keep it simple - 100% are using Electronic Medical Record Systems. The saturation point was in 2003 when 90% of the hospitals had adopted EMR solutions, while the 50% mark had been passed back in 1999.

eRefferals, a tool for referring patients from one physician to another, for example for a radiology consultation, is currently being used by almost 80% of hospitals.

Need more figures? 80% of the hospitals provide teleradiology services. Filmless PACS in primary care is available in more than 53% of cases (figure from 2005).

New legislation is now aiming to take the use of eHealth solutions even further. Finland is to establish an eArchive – a national digital repository – for storing all patient documentation – from “before the cradle to beyond the grave”. The eArchive infrastructure will also be used to facilitate ePrescription, the second part of the project, which is designed to connect healthcare providers with private pharmacies. Finally, eView will enable citizens to view the most important parts of their healthcare documentation and the log data. The latter allows them to see who has accessed their records.

The project is set to go live in 2011. The first pilots start this year.

But how is it possible to get all parties and stakeholders to adopt a project of nationwide proportions within just three years? “They have to,” says Reponen, “because legislation requires everybody to adopt it, whether public or private healthcare provider.”

Reponen said he is convinced that today's technology is no longer a limiting factor. “If we take the proper approach, we will be able to use it to better serve the patient,” he said. (AS)

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