Status of eHealth Deployment and National Laws in Finland

Authors

• Jarmo Reponen FinnTelemedicum, University of Oulu, Finland; Raahe Hospital, Raahe, Finland
• Ilkka Winblad FinnTelemedicum, University of Oulu, Finland
• Päivi Hämäläinen STAKES (National Research Centre for Welfare and Health), Finland

Keywords:

eHealth, Electronic patient record, Telemedicine

Abstract

This paper shows the results of surveys produced by FinnTelemedicum (Centre of Excellence for Telehealth at the University of Oulu) and STAKES (National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health development in Finland) under assignment of the Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. The surveys show the status and trends of the usage of eHealth applications in the Finnish health care in 2003 and 2005 and preliminary information of the situation in 2007. The results show that the usage of eHealth applications has greatly progressed throughout the entire health care delivery system. The current wide utilization of the eHealth applications in Finnish health care forms a solid basis for developing future eHealth services. Finland has taken the initiative to build a national archive for electronic health data with citizen access by 2011.