In Finland, the sharing of medical data for research and innovation has been successfully regulated for years. Since 2019, Finland has had clear legislation in place allowing the use of secondary healthcare data - anonymised data that cannot be traced back to individuals - for scientific and commercial research. This legislation, combined with Finns' trust in their government, appears to be the basis of this success.
The hub of the system is Findata. A government organisation that acts as a gateway to healthcare data from hospitals, social security institutions and the national electronic patient record Kanta, among others. Every year, Findata receives around 300 applications, a third of which come from the private sector. Each application is carefully assessed and the approved data is made available exclusively via a secure server.
Among other things, researchers use the data to develop predictive models to better estimate the demand for care in hospitals. They also map risks of conditions such as lung cancer and heart disease. This contributes to proactive care provision, potentially saving costs. Linking genetic data through biobanks also allows healthcare providers to tailor treatments to a person's genetic profile, increasing the effectiveness of medicines.
How healthcare data is used in Finland
An example of how healthcare data is being used in Finland is the Scandinavian company Nordic Healthcare Group's research on the brain virus tick encephalitis (TBE). They requested data on the number of people vaccinated and how often unvaccinated people sought medical attention. Since vaccinations are often through private providers, this offers valuable insights for improving prevention policies and care planning.
UK company Clarivate also uses Finnish healthcare data. They analysed a large amount of diagnostic data from doctors to identify trends and disease peaks. These insights help pharmacists and healthcare providers, among others, respond to healthcare trends. These applications are also possible thanks to Finland's policy around secondary data, where anonymised data is made available for research and innovation.
Researcher Jaakko Lähteenmäki of the Finnish institute VTT also makes intensive use of Findata. Using Finnish healthcare data, his team developed, among other things, a method to quickly recognise a stroke and is investigating risk factors for lung cancer. Lähteenmäki also uses the data to predict care needs in the future and develop systems that identify patients at increased risk of conditions, such as cardiovascular disease, in time. This will help citizens proactively and keep healthcare costs manageable.
Source of inspiration fort the EHDS
Finland leads the way in Europe with its system and served as inspiration for the European Health Data Space (EHDS). This European law requires Member States to make medical data available to patients, healthcare providers and researchers. It recently entered into force on 26 March, and Minister Agema of Health, Welfare and Sport informed the Lower House of Parliament in a parliamentary letter this week about the implementation of the EHDS in the Netherlands.
Although the system is not yet perfect - for instance, due to sometimes long waiting times - the Finns are actively working to improve it. The main lesson from Finland? Trust, clear rules and a centralised approach enable secure data exchange. This lays the foundation for innovation, better care and faster drug development.
