eHealth in Finland

Key figures

5.5M

people

9.2% of the GDP

went to health care in 2020

2nd

most advanced digital economy of the EU in 2021

Governance of the health system is shared between the Finnish government and the 19 regions

Outpatient care, funded by which employers contribute for their employees.

The Finnish government develops and implements health reforms and policies. The regions are responsible for purchasing and caring for their inhabitants at the local level and run the public hospitals.
The health system is organised differently for :

  • Hospital care, financed by taxes 
  • Outpatient care, financed by the Kela Social Institute to which employers contribute for their employees. 

 

Meeting the ambassadors

Matti Anttonen, Ambassador of Finland in France.

Finland is a highly digitized country thanks to its health database system

  • The Finnish health database has been 100% digitized and stores data on the health of the population, making it one of the most comprehensive databases in the world.
  • Its hospitals are state-of-the-art and provide facilities for testing new health technologies. Citizens are more likely to participate in clinical trials than the European average. This is the result of a culture of trust in Finland, where citizens have a high level of confidence in new technologies and in their institutions.

How do you access the Finnish market?


1. The Finnish ecosystem 

The first stakeholder to know in the Finnish ecosystem is the Finnish Chamber of Commerce. Once you have registered with them, you will have access to all of the country's services.

2. Stakeholders in the eHealth ecosystem

There are two leading institutions for eHealth innovation in Finland that bring together stakeholders in the Finnish ecosystem.

  • Cleverhealth, an eHealth ecosystem that takes advantage of government funding opportunities for specific projects: CleverHealth brings together companies and health experts to address the needs identified by the State. Supported financially by the government, its projects are inclusive and open to non-Finnish companies

  • Finnish Academic Hubs and Trial Sites: In the field of health, five universities are directly assigned to hospitals in a system of trial sites that allows companies to develop and test their ideas with stakeholders and resources on the ground: Turku, Kuopio, Oulu, Helsinki, Tampere

3. Finnish eHealth Portal Services

The country is focusing on the use of health data for innovation and research.

Findata is a one-stop shop for the use of social and health register data in Finland.
The platform fingenious is a one-stop portal to health data that Finland makes available for research. It is a unique biobanking service, an online portal to access samples and data.

4. Important conditions for accessing the market

The conditions for access to the Finnish market are CE marking and compliance with European regulations such as the Medical Device Regulation (MDR):

  • Hilma, a public procurement system. Hilma is the agency responsible for public procurement. It connects medical device suppliers with hospitals and other healthcare facilities. When choosing a product, Hilma fully complies with the rules of European public procurement.

  • Sailab - MedTech Finland: The eHealth trade association. Sailab - MedTech Finland is an association of companies in the eHealth technology sector. Sailab - MedTech Finland promotes good procurement practices and innovation and advises on the regulation of eHealth technologies. To join Sailab, you must comply with the Finnish eHealth Code and the Competition Law Code. Membership costs €800.

  • Fimea, the health authority. Market access for pharmaceutical products is regulated by Fimea, the Finnish Medicines Agency. Currently, there is no reimbursement system in place for connected medical devices.

  • Implementing a new Digi-HTA process for eHealth technologies in Finland: The method was developed to allow health professionals to obtain a reliable, unbiased assessment. It is free for technology companies and healthcare providers. Digi-HTA's evaluation and recommendation is based on the information provided by the company about its product. The Digi-HTA evaluation criteria and process are tailored to the evaluation of digital medical devices for healthcare and wellness, as well as non-medical digital devices/solutions

Government authorities and platforms

In charge of the evaluation and legislation of health products

Sosiaali-ja terveysministerio (STM): Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health Terveyden ja hyvinvoinnin laitos (THL): Institute of Health and Welfare and equivalent of the Digital Health Agency Valvira: The National Health and Social Care Supervisory Authority Kansaneläkelaitos(Kela): the Social Insurance Institution Keskus-kauppakamari: the Finnish Chamber of Commerce Business Finland: Finland's innovation financing, trade promotion, travel and investment organisation FIMEA: the Finnish Medicines Agency Hilma: the public procurement portal

Hubs and innovation clusters

They bring together and facilitate the incubation of new technologies

Sitra: an active fund that brings together actors and encourages innovation Cleverhealth: digital health hub attached to the state

Training courses

Universities and their groups that offer training and support for digital health innovations

Turku University : This university offers Master's-level training in digital health, and a research and experimentation group (Agora) for the development of digital health and its ecosystem Kuopio Campus – Eastern Finland University : This university offers online training in digital health, and provides a favorable environment for the sector with its university hospital, science park and network of partner companies Oulu University : This university has research groups and a center for health and technology under the DigiHealth strategy Helsinki University : With the Digital Health Revolution program and the HiLife Institute, this university offers a fertile ground for the development, financing and experimentation of digital health and particularly health data processing Tampere University : The Department of Medicine fully integrates research and training for innovation in healthcare, notably through its virtual laboratory for learning and research in applied sciences