Digital healthcare in Finland

Key figures

5,5M

inhabitants

9.2% of GDP

destined for healthcare in 2020

2nd

EU's most advanced digital economy in 2021

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

The Finnish government develops and implements healthcare reforms and policies. The regions are responsible for purchasing and caring for their inhabitants at local level and manage public hospitals.

The healthcare system is organized differently for:

Meet the ambassadors

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

  • Finland's health database has been 100% digitized and stores population health data making it one of the most comprehensive databases in the world.
  • Hospitals are at the cutting edge of technology and provide facilities for testing new healthcare technologies. Citizens are more likely to take part in clinical tests 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 player to know in the Finnish ecosystem is the Finnish Chamber of Commerce. Once you've registered with them, you'll have access to all Finnish services.

2. Stakeholders in the digital health ecosystem

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

  • Cleverhealth, a digital health ecosystem that benefits from government funding opportunities for specific projects:CleverHealth brings together companies and healthcare experts to address needs identified by the state. Financially supported by the government, its projects are inclusive and open to non-Finnish companies

  • Finnish academic clusters and proving grounds:In the healthcare field, five universities are directly linked to hospitals in a proving ground system that enables companies to develop and test their ideas with actors and resources on the ground: Turku, Kuopio, Oulu, Helsinki, Tampere

3. Finnish digital health portal services

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

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

4. Market access requirements

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

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

  • Sailab - MedTech Finland: the digital healthcare industry association. Sailab - MedTech Finland is an association of companies in the digital health technology sector. Sailab - MedTech Finland promotes good procurement practices and innovation, and advises on the regulation of digital health technologies. To join Sailab, you need to comply with the Finnish Digital Health Code and the Competition Law Code. Membership costs 800 EUR.

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

  • Implementation of a new Digi-HTA process for digital health technologies in Finland:The method has been developed to enable healthcare professionals to obtain a reliable and unbiased assessment. It is free of charge for technology companies and healthcare providers. Digi-HTA's assessment and recommendation is based on 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

They are responsible for the evaluation and legislation of health products

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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

Support and innovation initiatives

They bring together and facilitate the incubation of technologies

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

Training

Universities and their groups that train and support 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