KELA
There are five people in my family: myself, my husband and our three children. And yes, we use KELA. Personally I use KELAs payment for healthcare fee for students in higher education and I have used the dental care. When I studied at the university of applied sciences (2014-2017), I received study and housing allowance from KELA. I have also used maternity grant and maternity allowance three times with our children. We also get three child benefits and a disabled persons support because one of my children is a disabled child.
KELA is an important part of the lives of many Finnish families in many kinds of situations. It’s great that we have KELA in Finland to improve people and families well-being.
I already have an European Health Care Card. I got the European Health Care Card before I traveled abroad for the first time as a child. I always keep the card in my wallet because well, you never know.
OmaKanta
You can log in to the OmaKanta service with your bank ID at kanta.fi. OmaKanta is an important service in Finnish healthcare. It allows patients to, for example, view laboratory test results or request a prescription renewal. In OmaKanta, you can also read what the doctor or nurse has written there after the appointment. Sometimes a doctor’s appointment can be exciting, so you don’t remember everything that was said and recommended. You can also write a living will and an organ donation will there. I have written a living will because if I get injured for example in a car accident and I can’t tell my own wishes, the healthcare staff will know what I’ve been thinking. In OmaKanta you can also write your own measurement results, for example blood pressure or blood sugar. You can also check which vaccines you have received and when.
KEVA
On the KEVA website, I was able to calculate the amount of my pension if I retire at the age of 68 or 70. This site also is telling that my current retirement age is almost 68 years. In Finland, many people want to work even after they have reached retirement age. The pension becomes much bigger if you work for example two years longer, if you can.
Digi markets
When I compared prices between online stores and local stores, many online stores are very much cheaper. This is certainly influenced by many things.
When you buy a product from Finland, you usually trust that the product is well made with good products and that the maker gets a good salary for their work. When you order a product from abroad the price is very much cheaper, there is often something negative behind it. It could be that the worker gets a really low salary, the workplace is dangerous and un-ethical or the materials are not safe to use.
When ordering products from far away abroad, you can’t be sure whether the product will ever arrive. And if the product is defective or you want to return it, for example, the company may not respond to your contacts.
Before I buy products from abroad or use international services, I read reviews about the website. I also want to find contact information on the page. Personally I prefer finnish websites or well-known brands because of the safety of the product and ethics.
A digital service in my field
Smart Symptom Check is a feature widely used in healthcare. First, the patient must fill out a symptom questionnaire. The smart application selects the next questions based on the previous questions. Finally, the application summarizes the patient’s answers. The doctor then reviews the patient’s information and provides, for example, a prescription and follow-up care instructions.
I have used this feature myself in occupational health care. I think it works really well and speeds up the process. The doctor doesn’t have to spend so much time asking right questions or search patients history. The application may ask at first, for example, ”Why are you contacting healthcare?” and the answer options may be fever, flu, stomach ache, sore throat, cough, etc. When you select, for example, sore throat, the application asks ”Have you had a fever during the symptoms?” and ”How many days have the symptoms lasted?”. At the end, the application asks ”How much information do you have about these symptoms?” and ”How worried are you about your situation?”. The answers are ”Yes” or ”No” or, for example, a number. The last question in the survey is an open question where you can write text freely. After the survey, the application informs you how long you have to wait.
People outside of digital services
Some people are out of the digital services. They are commonly elderly people or poor people with low-income to use money to pay for the devices needed. Also disabled people or people with other limitations can also fall into the digital gap. This kind of people can not use services independently and in real time.
I think the digital gap affects the elderly the most. The biggest challenge in using digital services is that older people are not used to using these services and learning them is difficult, for some even impossible. In many places, health care centers are being closed and services are being moved further away from citizens. In that case, using digital services would be very beneficial. The fact that there are many different menus and text on the pages of digital healthcare services certainly poses challenges. If an elderly person does not know how to use digital services, their health can suffer. There is also safety issues when using digital services. Sometimes we might need families or community’s help in living in today’s world.
Digital Competence Test
I took the digital literacy test and it was an eye-opener. I realized that I am quite careless with data protection. The questions were specific (you need to know the vocabulary) and there were a lot of them.
Self evaluation
Doing this assignment taught me something new about data protection. Otherwise, the topics were quite common. For me, writing and reading English is difficult and takes a lot of time. I learned new words in english and that’s the most important goal for me.
Blogs that I commented: