Own experiences of the digitalization

Posted on 16.10.2025 by Tiina M Blek

I’ve seen a huge progress in digitalization in healthcare and more specifically in the clinical laboratory. In the 1990’s laboratory research results were manually entered into a very primitive operating system. Through this operating system only doctors and nurses could see and use those results. So the patients received their results only at a doctor or nurse appointment.

The clinical laboratory has evolved enormously since those days and analytics are automated. This allows for ever smaller sample volumes and laboratory research results can be accepted directly via autovalidation and then transferred to the patient information system. The development of digitalization has accelerated the processing and analysis of samples in the clinical laboratory and results are available on a very large scale on an emergency basis. With the digital platform, some of clinical laboratory analysis can be performed next to the patient for example in the ambulance or at home. These test results can be quickly transferred to a doctor for interpretation and the patient receives high-quality healthcare. With the development of digitalization, normal people can use smart devices to detect, for example, a heart rhythm disorder and take an ECG as a sample of this symptom using a smartwatch.

Healthcare is in creasing moving towards digital receivers, which were developed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Technology and digitalization have advanced in a short time. Many different information systems are used in healthcare, which must be well managed and information security must be understood comprehensively. Continuous training aims to ensure sufficient expertise to combat cyber threats. Everyone is responsible for working in a secure manner with patient information systems. 

Risks and GDPR

In an open digital society, it´s easy to handle daily tasks on line, but at the same time you are exposed to hackers. Identifications must be created as multi-step for your safety. The used passwords has to be different for different programs. For exchample, when making online purchases, you must ensure that the website is legitimate. It`s very reassuring that GDPR has set restriction on the preservation of privacy.

Questions for ChatGPT

How artificial intelligence can help with ECG interpretation daily registration?

The AI determined well that the 24-hour recording of ECG produces a huge amount of data, because tens of thousands of heartbeats accumulate in a day. It is impossible to screen these manually.

• In signal processing, AI removes interference and artifacts.
• Heart rate and rhythm analysis and heart rate variability calculation.
• Indentification and classification of arrhythmias using algorithms. (Recognition of atrial fibrillation and extra beats)
• Finding occurrences of anomalous periods.
• Prediction and risk assessment in heart function. 

In the future the use of AI can also be expanded by integrating the patient’s health data into clinical decision-making and comprehensive patient care. In practice AI acts as an assistant in the interpretation of the ECG, which must be checked by the doctor before a diagnosis can be made. This information given by ChatGPT was correct.

How AI can help in matching genetic inheritance and medication?

This is said to be one of the most promising applications of AI, which aims to combine genomic data and medical data.

• Pharmacogenetics analysis. Certain gene variants affect drug metabolism. AI helps to identify deviations in metabolism and helps to estimate the necessary drug dose and the side effects.
• Multiple medications. With the help of AI harmful risks can be screened more precisely.
• From raw genetic data AI is able to make summaries and findings in terms of current medication. 

AI can be used to check the compatibility of medication and genetic makeup, so that the doctor can treat the patient more individually. These answers were pretty accurate information and I think, that ChatGPT is quite full of genetic knowledgement.

Self valuation

We should understand more about open digitalization and especially data protection and saving data sensibly. This task made me think about what is worth sharing on social media and how AI processes our shared data. It was quite challenging to write a blog, but reading other student`s writings helped me to go on and same time I got new visions.

I´ve commented to: Jenni Hautala and Inga Hirvanen websites/ Digital society