Development of digitalisation in healthcare

I was born in 1984, in that time people´s couldn´t even imagine digitalisation was coming, it was time of colour TV´s and landline telephones. I remember when my mum got first mobile phone when i was about 10 year´s old, its was amazing. I got mine first mobilephone when I turned up 13, it was Nokia 3110. When I was studying to practical nurse, computer was part of daily life, but even that we still couldn´t expect what is coming for with digitalisation.

I started my nursing career in June 2003, after graduating as a nurse. My first job was in the Cancer Department of Kuopio University Hospital. In those days, patient records were still on paper and recording was done manually. Only laboratory responses and patient meal orders were done by computer. Between 2004–2005 came the electronic patient information system, the change was huge and caused resistance at first, because people thought that time they spent using this new system would be off from the patient work. This founded out only partly true, but nowadays quite common opinion is that after time has passed by, digitalisation evolving in the future will be helpfull and we can give more a time to patients`s again.

Now in the year 2022 I am remembering my career from 2003 to this day and got to say that the digitalisation development has been fast in healthcare. We have computer in every patient room, so nurse´s can do all computer work in place with present with the patient.  Digitalisation has also brought smart medicine cabinet which make working easier. We have taken in use online patient reception and today we have Kanta service, where patients can see online their own health information and all laboratory results and visit reports.

Patients can easily access information from the Internet. The challenge is whether the information is correct. As professionals, we need to guide patients to the right information. In my work, I use the terveyskyla.fi website, which provides good information for patients and their relatives.

Today, digitalisation also makes studying easier, the learning material is online and you can study on different platforms and online. When Covid 19 started in 2020, digitalisation and working in diferent platforms and online became even more common. I think that attitudes to online work has chance after Covid -19 pandemic.

As digitalisation increases, we must take into account the threat of cyber attacks. At the organizational level, I believe this has been taken into account. As individual employees, we also need to take this into account, for example, when using email. Everyone leaves traces on the internet like facebook email google etc. A cyber attack can target patient data and its dissemination.

The General Data Protection Regulation entered into force in 2018 in the EU. This means that all companies operating in the EU are subject to the same data protection rules. Privacy settings allow people to have better control over their personal information and give businesses a more equal operating conditions

The rapid development of digitalisation in recent decades has brought challenges to the protection of personal data. A lot of personal information is shared, for example in social media accounts, online shopping and so on, all of this information is shared globally.

In healthcare, in addition to the Data Protection Regulation, the Data Protection Act, the Act on the Status and Rights of Patients and the Act on the Electronic Processing of Social and Healthcare Customer Data are used to process patient data. Those who are working in the healthcare industry need to be aware of the regulations and laws governing the processing of patient data in order to act properly. Patients must be asked for written permission to process and transfer data.

Self-assesment

The orientation material helped to learn more about the subject. It helps to think more about effects of digitalisation. Digitalisation has many benefits for our work but also own challenges.

My comments to these blogs: Katja Rönkkö and Anni-Liina Voutilainen