DigiFinland

DigiFinland Oy promotes digital development in the Finnish social welfare and rescue sector and ICT compatibility in public administration. DigiFinland develops digital services to support and enhance the work of healthcare professionals in cooperation with Pinja.

DigiFinland supports the work of social and healthcare professionals using efficient digital services

DigiFinland is a state-owned, non-profit special purpose company that works extensively in Finland to digitize and streamline the social services sector, and produce socially relevant services used by every Finn. One of the services coordinated by the company is the Päivystysapu 116117 on-call help service, which covers up to 97% of Finns. An important milestone in the digital support of the service was reached in December 2021. That is when the Hoidonperusteet.fi online service was launched for national use in cooperation with Pinja, to improve the assessment of the need and urgency of care.

The cooperation in brief

Project launch

In summer 2021, DigiFinland selected Pinja as a product development partner for the digital services of Päivystysapu 116117 to perform the technical implementation of the library of emergency care criteria, the Hoidonperusteet.fi service. The project launched in August 2021. DigiFinland and Pinja also collaborate on other projects, including the Omaolo service and data analytics.

Development and launch of the Hoidonperusteet.fi online service

The open and free-of-charge online service for healthcare professionals, Hoidonperusteet.fi, was launched in December 2021. The service made the national emergency care criteria available to healthcare professionals in a user-friendly format. The service supports the healthcare professionals in assessing the need and urgency of care based on the symptoms reported by the resident.

Towards a wider service

The development and expansion of the Hoidonperusteet.fi online service will continue in 2022. The next version of the service will allow, among other things, the addition of regional care sites and practices as part of the digital service. The development work will continue to be carried out together with healthcare professionals and medical content expert panels, listening to practical needs.

Despite the challenging schedule of the project, the objectives were achieved well. We’ve already received feedback from users, and it’s been great to hear that the service is considered easy and intuitive to use. Our expectations of Pinja have been met.

Kati Mansikkaniemi, Specialist, Päivystysapu 116117

Ease of use and accessibility first

When DigiFinland and Pinja started working together in August 2021, the aim was to build an easy-to-use and accessible Hoidonperusteet.fi service for healthcare professionals, and to launch it by the end of the year. The materials based on symptom cards and links to external sources of information used in the service were designed to help professionals assess the need and urgency of a resident’s care in a convenient and unambiguous way. One of the objectives of the project included the harmonization of practices at national level.

– Our aim was to produce a high-quality and nationally unified set of guidelines that provide residents with the same guidance regardless of where they live in Finland. The system itself does not make decisions, but supports professionals in their decision-making. It is therefore important that the service is easy to use and provides comprehensive information in one place”, says Kati Mansikkaniemi, Project Manager and Specialist at DigiFinland.

The starting point for the project was that the materials published on the web service are available as PDF files, but the system development and technical implementation had to start from scratch. A key objective was to create an easy-to-use, accessible and secure solution that is capable of handling a large number of concurrent users, and is also scalable to future needs.

– Despite the challenging schedule of the project, the objectives were achieved well. We’ve already received feedback from users, and it’s been great to hear that the service is considered easy and intuitive to use. Hoidonperusteet.fi is a service long desired and expected by professionals, and at the core of our development work are the needs and wishes of real users, Mansikkaniemi says.

A common language and systematic approach for successful remote projects

Among the projects coordinated by DigiFinland are the Omaolo service, the Virta project for the development of information management in welfare regions, and the Päivystysapu 116117 service.

The end-user target group for the Hoidonperusteet.fi service is narrow, but it contains a lot of people. In addition, the wide range of devices and operating systems made the project even more challenging. The successful implementation of the project within the specified timeframe requires a professional and systematic approach from the entire project organization. Right from the start of the project, common policies, practices and review points were agreed, allowing the collaboration to proceed seamlessly and finish as planned.

– Our expectations of Pinja have been fulfilled. We have been delighted to see how systematic and well-managed the work of Pinja is. They are professional and self-directed. The different team members have taken turns in the course of the project to stand out in a positive way and complement each other nicely. The expertise is apparent, Mansikkaniemi says.

The development of the online service was eventually carried out entirely remotely, although face-to-face meetings were occasionally held.

– We have always had a good team spirit and strong communication – even when dealing with difficult issues. The cooperation worked from the start and has only improved over time.

The development of the Hoidonperusteet.fi online service will continue in 2022, with a broader, updated version of the service to be launched in phases by June 2022.