Assessing the Alignment Between Existing Finnish Patient Portals and the Newly Implemented Finnish Well-Being Reform: Informed by Insights From the US Health Reform Monitoring

1. Introduction

The well-being of 21 counties reform (Sote-uudistus, 2023) in Finland has brought significant changes to the healthcare services, aiming to enhance the quality of care, improve patient outcomes, and increase overall well-being (Keskimäki et al., 2019; Koivisto et al.,2019). This reform focuses on transforming healthcare delivery by integrating various services, promoting preventive care, and empowering patients to actively participate in their healthcare decisions (Koivisto et al.,2018).

Patient portals (Nøst et al., 2021; National Library of Medicine, 2023) have emerged as an integral component of the well-being counties reform. The importance of patient portals within the well-being counties reform cannot be overstated (Keskimäki et al., 2019). They have the potential power to improve patient outcomes, enhance communication between patients and healthcare providers, and facilitate access to healthcare services. Patient portals are digital tools that enable individuals to conveniently access their health information, review test results, and monitor their health progress (Carini et al., 2021; Sipanounet al., 2022; Lear et al., 2022; Khadjesari et al., 2023; Nelson et al., 2023). Additionally, these digital tools can promote self-care, facilitate care coordination among different healthcare providers, and contribute to the overall efficiency of the healthcare system (Sieck et al., 2018; Brands et al., 2022, Cresswell et al., 2022; Singh et al.,2023; Zachrison et al., 2023). The Finnish well-being reform was accepted by Finnish parliament in June 2021 (Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, 2021). The objective of this research is to assess the alignment between the existing Finnish patient portals and the recently implemented Finnish well-being reform, which became effective on January 1, 2023. There is limited research discussing the reform's aims and the growth of the use of Finnish patient portals. To support this assessment, insights from the US Health reform monitoring were utilized.