The Master's thesis published in the SoteDataLab project examined how the digital clinic opened in the well-being services county of Eastern Uusimaa related to the service use of different population groups in 2023-2024. We found that the younger population and women seemed to benefit the most from the digital clinic, and they were also the most active users of the service. When looked at by income group, the analysis suggests that low-income people had the greatest benefits, even though they used digital clinics the least. By contrast, people living near traditional health care receptions and middle-income people prefer traditional outpatient health care services over digital services.
In Finland, digital clinics have been introduced based on the assumption that they improve the availability of services and reduce costs. But how did the new services relate to the use of patients' services? To investigate the matter, we linked the data from the National Patient Register (Avohilmo) of the Itä-Uusimaa wellbeing services county for 2023-2024 to the Population Register. This allowed us to examine how people with different backgrounds used digital clinics. The analysis took into account, among other things, income, age, gender and distance to the nearest health station.
The analysis was carried out in two stages. First, a discrete, i.e. discontinuous, model regression analysis was used to measure how the above-mentioned background factors are related to the probability of visiting a digital clinic.
The parameters produced by the regression model were then used in a simulation to answer the question: What if a digital clinic was not available in Eastern Uusimaa? By simulating this situation, we were able to measure the additional benefit that the digital option brings to different population groups. In other words, the discontinuous model produced the parameters, and the simulation model used them to calculate the effects (benefit).
What are the conclusions of the analysis?
- The use of the digital clinic was highest among young adults. For women under the age of 25, the benefits of digital reception were more than twice as great as for those over the age of 65. Young men benefited slightly less from the digital clinic than women.
- Women used digital clinics more than men in all age groups. On average, women also consistently benefited more from the availability of digital clinics than men. This may reflect differences in the needs of health services and the nature of digital transactions for different groups
- In terms of revenue, we found a surprising phenomenon: Although low-income people visited the digital clinic less often, they benefited the most from its availability. On the other hand, middle-income earners benefited the least from the digital clinic.
- There was an expected connection to the nearest health centre. The further away a person lived from the health centre, the more likely they were to benefit from the availability of a digital clinic (Figure 1).
Figure 1: The figure presents the probability of visiting a digital clinic in the public sector as a function of the distance from the nearest physical health station. Both men and women are more likely to visit a digital clinic the farther away people live from the nearest health centre. Regardless of distance, women are more likely to visit a digital clinic than men.
Digital clinics can improve access to health services, but benefits may not be evenly distributed
There are several key factors in the distribution of benefits. One important factor is the distance: In Eastern Uusimaa, the maximum distance from the public health centre is about 25 kilometres, and even in this environment, the distance plays a clear role. Those living further away are more likely to use digital clinics than those living closer to health centres. In areas where distances are significantly longer, the connection may be even stronger.
The analysis of income inequality showed some surprising results. Even if it could be assumed that the income level would consistently predict human benefits from digital services, our findings did not support this assumption. Low-income people benefited most from digital clinics, although they used them less often. In turn, middle-income earners benefited less from both low-income and high-income earners.
The benefits of digital clinics for people are also likely to be influenced by other factors, the understanding of which requires further research into the use of digital services. Identifying these underlying features can help policymakers target new services more effectively and ensure that digital health services reach the groups that benefit the most from it.
The full thesis is available at: https://helda.helsinki.fi/items/3280b108-d3ec-40e3-8fd8-097c4253de9a
See also our previous analyses:
In May 2025, the population coverage of public digital clinics rose to over 4.3 million.
What are the differences between digital clinic solutions in wellbeing services counties?
Category: Bloggers
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