DIGI CITIZEN

Kela, OmaKanta and pension

During my nursing studies I have received financial aid for students and also student loan from Kela. It allowed me to graduate earlier than expected because I could focus on studies. There was also a benefit for graduating early, because when you did you got some percent off your student loan. So overall I’m grateful for this system in Finland. In my career there have been times when I was unemployed and during those times I have used Kela’s services. When covid stroke we got infectious disease allowance which allowed us to be sick at home for necessary time. In healthcare we got reimbursements for medical expenses at private doctor’s office directly by showing Kela card. The European health insurance card allows us to have care or treatment abroad in foreign country with local expenses (Kela 2024). That’s why you should always keep your European health insurance card with you when you travel. I already have mine and actually got new one automatically last week after my old card expired which was surprising.

OmaKanta is Kela’s national internet service, where you can see your own data about your health (Kanta 2024). You can access your own OmaKanta with your online bank identification, certificate card or mobile certificate. There are also common European identification methods and the Finnish authenticator app for foreigners. (Suomi.fi 2022.) I am used to OmaKanta, but I think there are improvements that should be done. Me and my friends have noticed that past laboratory test results are hard to find. As a nurse I would want to see all my results in the same page so I can compare them.

I got my pension information from Varma. My minimum age of retirement is 68 and maximum age is 70. Pension difference between those ages is 269 euros. I haven’t looked how much pension I would get so it was interesting to find out. It will be interesting to see what the reality is because there are many transforms in the future I think.

Digital shop

I have often used Booking.com during the last few years. The service has been reliable and it has been easy to deal with the service provider. Prices have been reasonable, but sometimes there have been better offers on hotel’s own website or another sites so for the best offer you should compare different sites.

Amazon and eBay don’t have my vote of confidence yet. Still I believe they sell quality products for reasonable price. Even if the prices are affordable you must pay attention to shipping expenses. For this assigment I went looking for clothing and found out that one pair of special socks cost 8,99 euros and the shipping is also 8,99 euros. The socks are anti-slip and compared to Finnish sites I found that the socks are cheap but with shipping it is just normal price unless you purchase many items. I think that in Finland we have limited shops and wares so sometimes it is necessary to buy products from foreigner online stores. When shopping online I try to make ethical decisions. For example, Asian online stores like Shein and Temu have been in the news about their unethical manners and also there are problems in overseeing these stores which can make products unsafe.

Healthcare application Maisa

From my own field I chose Maisa application for analysis. I chose this application because I have used it as a professional and I also have customer’s perspective. Maisa is part of the Apotti system which is an electronic client and patient record. There you can book appointments to HUS units, communicate with care units and see your documents and test results there. (HUS 2024.) In general this kind of application is more than welcome and helps customers and healthcare workers to communicate. I found this very comforting during my own experience as a customer because it made me more aware of my own condition. Appointment booking still needs improvement as there are not many healthcare units that can be booked with Maisa. Also reading test results as a customer is slightly disorganized.

The risks and challenges in digitalization

Maisa and other digital ways to communicate with customers and patients are progressive but include risks. We are still living in time where digitalization doesn’t affect everyone. My grandmother is an example of this. She can’t even read text messages, so we have to check her messages everytime because there have been messages from healthcare workers. Because of this she has unfortunately missed one of her appointments and some information about her care. Generally we can assume that elderly people don’t know how to use digital devices. Still there are grandmothers and grandfathers who can and will use them. I remember working in surgery unit which used the Apotti system including Maisa and one old lady had uploaded her picture in Maisa. That was shown in Apotti’s professional view so we could see how our patients looked before we saw her in real life. That was new back then and it made me delighted.

Digital competence

The results suggest that I am digitally quite capable. Digital communication is daily routine for me and I have pretty good social awareness. I aspire to be critical about everything I do digitally because I recognize the risks that come with digitalization. I could be better at storaging and protecting my data. You have to also be critical when searching for new information. There is much disinformation out there.  Overall I am interested in digitalization and everything that comes with it. There are so many possibilities in the future how we can improve our habits by using technology. Safety is a crucial part of digitalization and I think that is something everyone should continuously improve on. Digitalization itself develops all the time so we have to keep up.

Self-reflection

It was enlightening to read about different perspectives about digitalization and the assigments made my knowledge of digital citizenship more deeper. Reading what others have written about the topic made me realize that digitalization also includes inequality. For example, not everyone has an opportunity to study home like I am doing right now. There are people who don’t have the necessary equipment or know-how to use digital devices which makes these kind studies impossible for them.

Assigments included important e-platforms for all of us and it is good to know them. I am 31 years old and I have never found out how much pension I would get in the future. About digital competences, I think there is always need for improvement. Digitalization now and in the future can be very different which means that our competences have to change too. Digital security is especially important and it is something where everyone can learn new things or make new attentions.

Sources:

HUS 2024. Instruction videos for Maisa. Internet publication. https://www.hus.fi/en/e-services/instruction-videos-for-Maisa#maisa-presentation . Referenced 20.6.2024.

Kanta 2024. Omakanta. Internet publication. https://www.kanta.fi/en/mykanta . Referenced 16.6.2024.

Kela 2024. Who pays for your care? Internet publication. https://www.kela.fi/medical-treatment-in-international-situations-who-pays-your-care . Referenced 16.6.2024.

Suomi.fi 2022. How to identify yourself in an e-service. https://www.suomi.fi/instructions-and-support/identification/how-to-identify-yourself-in-an-e-service . Referenced 16.6.2024.

I commented on these blogs:

Hi Sanna! Your post has a good perspective from another European country. I agree with you on how Finland could still improve these systems. I just spoke with my friend about Omakanta and how difficult it is to find information, like test results there. Also I have heard as a professional healthcare worker that there are problems with data transfer. The idea of your own general doctor is good. If the doctor has that many patients as you said it is hard for the doctor to stay on top of her/his patients.

Hi Lotta! I agree with you that digitalization has transformed society in many ways. You write good points about how it can affect people who don’t use virtual services. So we have to remember them during these times when we are developing digital services. Equality and access of opportunities should be kept in mind as you wrote.

Hi Katja! You are right, Amazon and eBay have a huge selection to pick from and it makes me overwhelmed as well so I often end up not purchasing anything. The prices are lower but with the shipping expenses it is almost the same price compared to local stores so it is much easier to shop out there. I agree with you that Finnish healthcare system should pay even more attention to people who don’t have digital knowledge in the future.