We at SoteDataLab work closely with several wellbeing services counties. As providers of social and health care services, the wellbeing services counties have a deep understanding of the organisation of digital health care services, the professionals working with them and the users. In this blog, we present our cooperation with the Päijät-Häme region. In addition, we will consider what kind of research opportunities the health care data resources collected by the wellbeing services counties, which are more extensive than national data, can open up.
Since the beginning of 2023, the wellbeing services counties have been responsible for organising social and health care services. Digital solutions – from chat nurses and doctors to AI-assisted technologies – are increasingly integrated into primary health care services provided by well-being areas. Well-being areas are the best real-life research laboratory for basic health care digital services. In addition, the wellbeing services counties have a wealth of practical knowledge and understanding of digital health services, health technologies and their adoption.
Due to the responsibility for organising health and social services, the wellbeing services counties have also become significant contributors to the collection of public register data on social welfare and health care. They are, for example, the source of the national Hilmo register data at our disposal – Hilmo data are cleaned research data from the source data of the regions. However, the wellbeing services counties collect much more data on the use of health care services than what ends up in Hilmo datasets. Deeper cooperation with the wellbeing services counties can therefore allow access to data that cannot be found in the national register datasets, while taking into account the protection of privacy and the legislation regulating secondary use of health care data.
Cooperation between Päijät-Häme and SoteDataLab focuses especially on research into the impact of digitalisation on primary health care resources with unprecedented accuracy
The Päijät-Häme region is an important partner of SoteDataLab. In practice, the cooperation works in such a way that two researchers from our research group have also applied for research permits for Päijät-Häme's own register data. Research analyses are carried out in a secure operating environment, and researchers do not have access to personal identification data. The researchers work under the joint guidance of the wellbeing services county and SoteDataLab.
The research has focused especially on the data collected from the Päijät-Sote application. The Päijät-Sote application, developed for healthcare digital transactions, collects data related to, for example, digital clinic visits, sent and completed patient surveys and user management. Important topics to be studied include the impact of a digital clinic on the resource use and effectiveness of primary health care, as well as possible differences between these, for example, in different population groups or regions. In addition, access to both the wellbeing services county's own and national register data enables comparisons between the counties' own data and the data in the national register data.
Figure 1: Example of data from the Päijät-Sote application – one digital clinic visit
The register data related to the use of the Päijät-Häme digital clinic is also internationally unique in terms of both quality and accuracy. The data enables the study of digital clinics in a completely new way, when instead of just a visit marking, we can see what the professional and the patient have done in the digital clinic and in the application.
All in all, cooperation with Päijät-Häme has opened a unique door not only to our research project, but to the entire research of digital services both in Finland and abroad.
Check out our previous blogs:
What are the differences between digital clinic solutions in wellbeing services counties?
Category: Bloggers
SoteDataLab: Santeri Pigg, Vivi Mauno
Päijät-Häme Welfare Area: Aaro Mustonen, Rami Autio, Marjo Soini, Vivi Mauno
Possible correspondence to experts of the Päijät-Häme Welfare Area, contact information: firstname.lastname@paijatha.fi