More than 4.3 million Finns live in an area that offers its own public primary-care digital clinic—i.e., a digital, often chat-based alternative to in-person primary-care services. In recent months, public digital-clinic operations have expanded rapidly into new areas and now cover nearly 80% of mainland Finland’s residents.
The population coverage of public digital clinics grew from about 3.3 million to over 4.3 million between February and May (see Figure 1). New digital platforms—and thereby digital clinics—were opened in the wellbeing services counties of Keski-Uusimaa (25 Mar), Länsi-Uusimaa (9 Apr), Etelä-Karjala (1 Apr), and Pohjanmaa (15 Apr).
The OmaKeusote application in Keski-Uusimaa centralises the area's digital services in one place, and the transition to the service will take place gradually in 2025-20261. The service opened at the end of March already has nearly 8,000 registered users and customers have reacted positively to the new service (average of customer feedback 4.04/5)2.
The Lunna application for Länsi-Uusimaa was introduced at the beginning of April, and it serves the entire population of 480,000 inhabitants3, while the Oma Ekhva application of South Karelia covers the population of 120,000 inhabitants of the region4. Both applications offer a real-time healthcare chat channel.
Meanwhile, in the Pohjanmaa wellbeing services county, a large-scale randomized trial covering 170,000 people was launched, the design of which we developed in close collaboration with the region. 5Randomization was carried out so that half of the population received access to the digital clinic for a 9-month pilot period before the service is expanded to the entire population. The aim of the trial is to examine the effects and effectiveness of using digital primary-care consultations.
In addition, at least the Lapland wellbeing services county has announced it will open a new digital service platform in autumn 2025. Other remaining wellbeing services areas that, by our definition, do not have a digital clinic—for example, Apotti users—already use digital platforms that allow non-urgent messages to be sent to health centres.
Figure 1: How many people live in an area where a public digital clinic is available
Explanation: The figure runs through May 2025. The definition of a digital clinic is based on our research group’s own interpretation. The chart excludes digital services of individual outsourced health centres and Apotti’s Maisa service. Non-urgent messaging services—with response times measured in days—are not counted as digital-clinic operations, where the aim is to reply to chat messages within minutes.
Figure 2: In which municipalities a public digital clinic is available.
Explanation: The figure runs through May 2025. The definition of a digital clinic is based on our research group’s own interpretation. The chart excludes digital services of individual outsourced health centres and Apotti’s Maisa service. Non-urgent messaging services—with response times measured in days—are not counted as digital-clinic operations, where the aim is to reply to chat messages within minutes.
Read our blog:
What are the differences between digital clinic solutions in wellbeing services counties?
Authors of the blog:
Alex Kivimäki, Tapio Haaga and other SoteDataLab team
- https://www.keusote.fi/sote-palvelut-taskussasi-lataa-nyt-omakeusote-mobiilisovellus/[↩]
- https://www.sttinfo.fi/tiedote/71156657/omakeusote-mobiilisovellus-vastaanotettu-hyvin-arvosanoin?publisherId=69819221&lang=fi[↩]
- https://www.luvn.fi/fi/uutiset/2025/04/lataa-lunna-ja-asioi-sujuvasti-palveluissamme[↩]
- https://www.ekhva.fi/2025/04/nyt-se-on-avattu-hyvinvointialue-otti-kayttoon-oma-ekhva-sovelluksen/#:~:text=Hyvinvointialue%20otti%20k%C3%A4ytt%C3%B6%C3%B6n%20Oma%20Ekhva%20%2Dsovelluksen,-1.4.2025&text=Etel%C3%A4%2DKarjalan%20hyvinvointialue%20on%20ottanut,esitieto%2D%20tai%20oirekyselyihin[↩]
- https://pohjanmaanhyvinvointi.fi/sairaanhoidon-digitaalisen-vastaanoton-kokeilu-alkaa-huhtikuussa/[↩]