Kela services
Kela (The Social Insurance Institution of Finland) is an independent, publicly governed institution that manages the basic security of people living in Finland in different life situations. Kela’s customers include all persons living in Finland and those covered by Finnish social security living abroad. Kela’s task is to secure the basic livelihood of the population, promote health and support independent coping in different life situations.
I visited Kela’s pages to remind myself of the different services Kela provides. At this time in my life, the only service I receive is child allowance. In the past when I was studying for the first time I of course have received student allowance and some housing benefits for rent.
Luckily, I and my family have been healthy and have had work so I can support myself ourselves independently. I’m of course very glad that there is such an institution like Kela to support those who need help and support in their different life situations.
Kela, with other agencies provides Kanta services. Kanta services provides a national digital database for social and health care data. The services are particularly related to the archiving and transmission of customer and patient data in healthcare and social welfare between different healthcare providers, as well as to prescriptions for medicines. The services are very familiar to me through work. In my personal life I rarely visit OmaKanta, where I can see my patient data. But I think this is a brilliant service to have. I know that my health care data is safe and well preserved. Kanta services are well regulated with legislation and provisions at the national level. I do see some challenges for some people, for example the elderly or other disadvantaged people who cannot or don’t know how to use the internet for example. If a person wants to log into Kanta services, they need to use strong identification. Suomi.fi e-identification is a strong identification service which allows a person to log in to Finnish e-services of public administration. This is difficult when a person does not have the capabilities (e.g knowledge) or means (eg. Does not own computer, self-phone or have access to them etc.) to use these services. It is easy to login to Kanta.
Keva. This was the first time for me to login to Keva.. And what a shock it was. I have never paid too much attention to the paper mail I get yearly from Keva. First thing that depressed me was my earliest pension age.. 67 years. The pension I get is half of my current sallary.. Won’t be travelling the world as a elderly pensioner .. I did not find the calculator to calculate my pension for different ages
Digital Shop
I visited Amazon. This was the first time I visited their page. I rarely visit any digital shops, I hate shopping. I don’t like to scroll there “just for the fun”. If I need to buy something, I need to know exactly what I want, find it quickly and make a purchase. It is important that the search engine is good. Even for this task, I started to feel overwhelmed by it all. I looked at some electronics and I couldn’t say that they were any cheaper than in “regular stores”.. Then I looked at some hair products. In those items there might be some cheaper options. I tried to look for information about shipping rates or about any additional fees, but they were so confusing, mostly about how the rates are in the USA. There was also other information, for example about security, but the information was quite well hidden behind multiple headings, I wonder if anyone reads them. I certainly didn’t. For this excursion, the conclusion is that I wont’t make an account to amazon. There are other digital shops that have an easier accessibility.
Service from my own field.
The service that I tried out was Omaolo. Omaolo is a national social and health care web-based service. Digi Finland maintains the service. Its goal is to promote the health and welfare of the citizens of Finland. It also wants to promote selfcare and participation. It is a medical device, and it has a CE-certification. Anyone can use the services A person can do an evaluation of his/her need of care. For example if a person has symptoms of a cold, he/she can do the preliminary evaluation. The service provides self-care advice or directs the person to a health care professional.
I chose this service because it is available to all, and it has a purpose to promote public health. Many healthcare apps are either for personal use or available only through service providers services, so they are a bit limited.
I hope people will use different virtual healthcare apps and services in the future. Fortunately, there is a national goal to bring a citizen and service providers closer together thought the Kanta services. If a person uses a health care app and produces information about their health, this information can be transferred to health care professional though Kanta services.
This of course brings the question of what about those who cannot use virtual services. For example, the elderly or other disabled groups. It is necessary to preserve traditional services for these groups. Nevertheless, this might result in a gap between individuals who can use wider range of services to those who cannot.
Digital competence test.
I did the test for myself. In the results I got +70% in information, communication and safety. Production was 60%. I can relate to that. I’m bad at creating any digital content. I prefer to search and consume information that to create it myself. I am quite interested in the new technology, but more in a knowledge level. I use different apps and tools and gadgets when needed (and usually find them useful), but I don’t seek them actively for personal use.
Self-reflection
The part about Kanta services was familiar to me since my work is related to health care services. At least in Finland this area (digital health care) is well regulated so that the information in these services are quite well protected. In the other areas the field is huge. There are services and apps to shop, play, socialise, educate etc. This brings to mind the previous assigment on digi society and how important data protection is when utilizing these different services in order to protect people’s safety and privacy.
12 thoughts on “DIGI CITIZEN”
Hello. Thank you for sharing your reflections. It was interesting to read about your experiences with online stores. Personally, I don’t prefer online shopping. However, I used to buy books from online stores, but nowadays, I am a heavy user of audiobook services. As a subscriber to BookBeat, I pay for streaming rather than individual books. I often browse online stores for climbing-related clothing, shoes and other equipment. However, I usually don’t purchase climbing-related items unless I can try the product before making a final decision. No information can replace personal experience. For example, the suitability and comfort of climbing shoes can only be confirmed through personal trial.
Question on digital gaps and digital capabilites are quite important. I think you (or I at least) cannot always recognize them for others’ behalf. It is hard to say what is the gap for people with various background. sometimes it maybe just configuration of internet, sometimes something else.
Hi!
You share your opinion about the Omaolo service in your blog. I also got to know the service and had a health checkup there. The health check is of course indicative, but it can make you understand if something in your life needs to change. I think such services are good and will certainly become more common in the future. All kinds of activities that promote the health and well-being of citizens are welcome. Sometimes the danger can be that people diagnose and monitor themselves too much. And this in itself can undermine your own health.
Hello! I checked, what is “OmaOlo”, as it sounded interesting. It seems to be a very good digital tool to promote the health and welfare of the citizens of Finland. It seems to be very easy to use as the tests take 2-4 minutes. I have used similar tool for a private health care service provider to support the communication with a professional. In OmaOlo, I tried “Health Check” section. It turned out that it is asked laboratory test results (even they can be left blank). I think this kind of tool is a good idea, but there might be issue on real measurements and persons opinions/feelings. People are using Google for medical diagnosis, this can be dangerous both physically and/or mentally.
Kela provides essential support for people in different life situations. While I’ve only utilized child allowance, I appreciate its broader role in securing livelihoods and promoting health. Kanta services ensure safe storage of health data, although accessibility remains a challenge for some. Keva’s pension revelation underscores the importance of financial planning.
It was nice to hear about your experiences with OmaOlo and Kanta. I am studying at Savonia as a Digitalisation Specialist in the social and health sector , so I’m interested in the potential of digitalisation for self-care.
OmaOlo is certainly easy to use, but I personally recommend Terveyskyla.fi. – service. It provides a very wide range of information on different diseases, symptoms and treatments. I recommend you to check it out. Digital services for patients are one of the most important keys to contain costs in the social and health sector. You can read more about it on my blog.
I believe that the use of the Kanta-service will increase significantly. In the past it has only been used by the health sector, but in the future it will also include social sector data. This will facilitate cooperation with professionals, but also the improvement of services for clients.
Thank you for your comments!
I also visited Amazon and eBay for the first time. In my opinion, their pages´ were confused. There are too many goods and junk. I noticed too, that I have to registrate that I can get the information. Neither of the sops arouse interest in me. I like online shopping, but I have to need something and then I want to choose my things carefully.
If you want to visit:
https://blogi.savonia.fi/hyvinvoiva/
Hello!
I’m not familiar with the use of Omaolo. Only time I’ve used it was during the Covid19 pandemic when you needed to fill the questionnaire before booking a Covid test. I went to check the site and I was genuinely surprised what the site looked like. I think I will use that later if needed, thanks for this 🙂
Hi! I have to agree with your Amazon experience. It really is overwhelming, actually it’s almost same thing if you wan’t to choose a movie from some kind on streaming website, It was so nice to go real shop and there was limited amount of movies and you were allowed to touch it and read the caption. I know, I sound like a person who is not willing to live in 2024, but actually It’s not like that, some things you just miss when you don’t have it anymore.
Hi!
It was nice to read about your thoughts and experiences about this Digi Citizen-assigment. I can relate partly your Amazon-shopping experience, because I also buy only things what I need and don’t like to waste my time on surfing websites. However websites can be useful when you need to compare prices.
Omaolo-service was new healthcare site for me and it was nice to check out that website. It was really easy to use and I think it can be helpful to people who are not healthcare professionals.
Data protection and privacy policies are also in my opinion very important when you’re using digital selvices. It would be useful, that everybody should take some data protection class when they are starting to use smartfones and digital services.
Hi Paulina
You brought up the challenges of the elderly in using digital services and strong identification. I agree with you that in digitization it is important to take into account the ability and limitations of the elderly to use digital services. Support and guidance for the use of digital services and the use of digital identification must be available for the elderly. You also brought up the Omaolo service, which makes it possible to make independent symptom assessments when considering seeking treatment. I agree with you that digital symptom assessments are useful and will certainly increase in healthcare digital services. In the case of these too, it is important that customers are taught and guided in the use of digital symptom assessments.