I was born in the 60 s and you can certainly understand that the world was completely different back then. Actually, there was only one telephone in the village which was used by everyone and letters and cards were sent by post. There were three banks and shops in the small village, but today none of them are left. People had to adapt to change and learn to use different digital tools.
Digitalisation at my work
I started working in dentistry in the late 80 s and all information about patients was written by hand. These medical report cards were retained in locked cabinets. I remember when I once tried to find the right card while the dentist and patient were already waiting for me. The first digitalised patient information system we used was introduced in the early 90 s and all medical reports were digitalised in the early 2000 s.
Nowadays I work in the public health care sector as a supervisor for dental healthcare. I’m using devices and a variety of software in my daily operations. For example there is software for planning the shifts for employees and human resources management.
Covid 19 is accelerating digital transformation also in health care and it has caused many changes associated with digitalisation. Most remarkable ones of those are:
– Online meetings and teleworking.
– Remotely provided services.
– Remote appointment with a doctor and nurse and even making a remote diagnosis of the patient.
Remote doctor-patient consultations as well as communication between consultant doctors specialized in different fields of medicine became possible. Usage of these health care services increased quickly. Patients’ health data system integrations (Kanta) made it possible to exchange and use information between clinics and other health institutions.
Future trend in health care
The use of different mobile health apps for smart phones and digital health platforms will be increasing. The health data that is digitally tracked on a daily basis could be utilized in cooperation between patients and healthcare professionals.
AI, big data and robotics will continue transforming digital healthcare. This technology can help patients to get better and faster treatment and medicines, as well as diagnostic processes will be better. Or at least that is what we believe to happen!
Nowadays, surgical robots have already been used in hospitals for many years and in the future it’s possible that care robots will help elderly people to live at home longer. However, which tasks can we delegate to these robots, and how ethical is it to leave a patient in the hand of these machines?
Security
The general data protection regulation (GDPR) gives individuals better control over their personal data and makes sure that people`s information and health data is better safe. Professionals who are handling patient’s data are responsible for that. GDPR protects the personal data and gives you the rights of your own data as long as you are an EU citizen. Sometimes patients want to see their own data although the same data is able to be read in Mykanta. Patients also have the right to know when their personal data has been breached, and they need to be informed about it.
As healthcare is a target for cyberattacks and viruses, protecting medical reports is vital. That requires effort and care from medical professionals as well as development of systems with strong information security. In recent years the data breach of psychotherapy center Vastaamo is a notorious example of these threats existing.
At work, we have good instructions on data protection and it is also everyone’s responsibility to follow these instructions.
There is also a lot of confidential information in the folders on our computers, so it is very important to keep your personal passwords in security. Fortunately, our Customer Support updates the websites immediately if there is a virus in the database.
Self- evaluation
This assignment made me closely think about the possibilities and dangers of digitalization in society. The development of digitalization has moved forward during my lifetime very fast, but at the same time I have had to learn the new skills of digitalization. For example, to create a blog (maybe I would be a famous blogger some day 😉). However, although I use different digital devices and a variety of software at work every day, new information and learning about safety issues are still needed.
I commented: