I have now worked in healthcare since 2011, the last year of which as an application specialist in patient information systems. Before that, I worked in a completely different field, and at that time digitalization played a different role than in my current work.

In my current work, digitalization and digital services are actually a big part of my actual work, and I am, for example, developing these functions and services in healthcare. However, in my opinion, the current services and functions are still very early in Finnish health care, if we compare the development with what is happening in the world.

In Finland and the EU, this development is partly limited by very diverse laws and regulations and slow-moving processes. On the other hand, this is a very good thing, because without them the situation could be very chaotic. At the same time, however, these Europe-wide protocols, laws and regulations also lay the foundations for a common and workable system in which it will be easier to operate in the future.

In many ways, the COVID pandemic gave a boost to digitalization, at least in healthcare. Various remote appointments, web-based health services and self-monitoring devices increased their popularity considerably during the pandemic, and the impact will certainly be permanent even after the pandemic.

The expansion of remote work due to the impact of the pandemic would also not have been possible without digital tools and their rapid adoption for more extensive use, such as Microsoft Teams, for example. I believe that here, too, working life has undergone a permanent change in digitalization, although now that the pandemic has eased, remote work has already begun to be reduced.

Big data and the Internet of things will play a big role in healthcare in the future. With the help of big data, it is possible to conduct research and development, for example, in the field of medicines, on a completely different level than before. Medical devices will certainly utilize IoT to an increasing extent.

One of the biggest risks of an open digital society is that people are not sufficiently aware of where and where they are disclosing or sharing their data. At the moment, there are a lot of different ways to share information, and these channels have always highlighted what people promise to do when they provide information, but whether everyone understands this and whether they familiarize themselves with privacy statements, for example, is another matter. There was a lot of talk in the videos about phishing and, for example, email privacy in general, but these things are already becoming so commonplace that, at least in theory, they should already be taken for granted by people.

The GDPR brought with it a little more paperwork when it came to my own work and caused some confusion in my work community at the time. At the time, no one really seemed to have an idea of what GDPR means.

In general, GDPR brings several benefits, including enhanced trust between data subjects and organizations, improved data security, better adaptability to evolving technology, reduced data maintenance costs, and better decision-making for businesses. GDPR compliance helps minimize the risk of data breaches, which can not only lead to hefty fines, but can also negatively impact a company’s brand and reputation.

I have to admit that I didn’t really learn anything completely new from the materials, but from a review point of view, the materials were very good. And, as they say, repetition is the mother of studies. And data security in particular is something that I don’t think can ever be overemphasized.

Big data is an area that interests and fascinates me to a great extent. In my work so far, I can’t really talk about big data processing, but more about small data. Although this data also plays a big role in my work, for example, when we develop knowledge-based management.

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