Kela

Kela’s services are very familiar to me even before this assignment. I was very much dependent on Kela’s financial aids and their student grant, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to live independently when studying to become a nurse. It was the same also for my husband who studied to become a first responder at the time. I’m currently still paying back my loan, one bit at a time. It’s one of the greater benefits of the social care in Finland, that the government backs the loan for all students. That evens out the playing field and makes it possible for students to move to a different city to study. I also ordered myself the European health care card, though I don’t travel much.

OmaKanta

I actually studied OmaKanta in the first course of my current studies. I learned about how it all started and how it came to be what it is today. It was very interesting, especially since we have couple Kela employees in our group. In OmaKanta you can see your own health records, renew prescriptions, save your living will and organ donation testaments, and also get access to the EU digital COVID-19 vaccination certificate.

To sign in to OmaKanta, one must use strong identification. I myself use the mobile affirmation, that uses my online banking identification to sign in.

Keva

Keva is the government organization that pays pension to public sector employees in Finland, once they have served their career, and is Finland’s largest pension provider. I did the math about my own income, and if I were to quit working at the age of 63, I would get paid 1933€ per month, but if I were to continue working until I’m 68, I would get up to 2218€ per month. Provided that I stay healthy, I think I would like to work as “late” as possible. I love my work and helping patients, and would love to do it as long as possible.

Shopping online

I checked out some of the sites suggested, such as eBay and amazon. Both are big and popular sites, and therefore I would say more reliable than some of the smaller options available. I don’t personally use amazon purely for ethical reasons, since they don’t value their employees much, but their web page seems logical and easy to navigate. eBay was a bit messier in my opinion, but on both sites the prizes seem to be in the same range as in the shops. Labels cost more than the product itself, and that is true on any website. I personally rather shop in person, since you always see what you are buying, but understandably that is not always the option available. I find that all necessary information is available to the consumer on both sites.

Of the two traveling/hotel sites mentioned in the assignment, Trivago was more familiar to me beforehand. This might be just because it has adds in TV here in Finland, and that in my mind gives the company a lot credibility. After checking out both of their pages, I find them equally easy to navigate and they both seem reliable. They are available in Finnish, which is also a plus. I’ve used Trivago before when booking a hotel while traveling with family, and everything went very smoothly. I find that all necessary information is available to the consumer on both sites.

The App of my choice – OmaMehiläinen

I chose this app, since I use it a lot and it’s actually pretty much the only app in my field that I use this often. OmaMehiläinen is the app created by my employer, Mehiläinen Oy, meant for our patients to be able to access their own health information, lab results, and also the Digital Clinic. I use it a lot, as my own occupational healthcare is with our company too. I find it to be a really nicely designed app and easy to use. One needs the strong identification to sign in, just like with OmaKanta. Once the first signing in has been done, you can come up with a passcode so the next time you don’t have to go through so much trouble. In OmaMehiläinen you are able to see when your prescription is about to expire, and send it for renewal, much like in OmaKanta. You can also see all the vaccinations given to you in Mehiläinen, and when thay need to be boosted. In the Digital Clinic the patient can speak to a nurse, physiotherapist or a doctor, they can get leave from work due to sickness, they can get advice and help with mental health issues and so much more. The patient can book and cancel times in the app, they can leave messages to their own occupational healthcare team and access to many online health programs that are available there, depending on your empleyers contract with Mehiläinen.

Digitalization and digital gap – what are the risks?

Digitalization brings so many opportunities. It can bring healthcare services to so many people that otherwise might not have the means to get to a doctor. On the other hand, not everybody has the means or the funds to access the internet. Computers are not cheap, and as with healthcare, not everybody has access to the local library and the computers there. If we think about Finnish healthcare system, we also need to consider the patients that don’t have Finnish social security number. They cannot get access to all services, such as OmaKanta, that require having it. What is even more than both of the reasons I mentioned above, not everybody has the capability to understand and to use digital services. Studies show that many elderly people find digital services hard to understand and to navigate in. Same goes for people that have learning disabilities or other disabilities that hinder their use of technology. All services being moved to digitalized form can bring so much good, but it can also bring inequality, and that is something that we cannot have in the health care. The problems faced by so called “offliners” doesn’t end with digital haltcare, but can extend to food, housing, medication and income (such as pention), as was seen during the lockdowns during Covid-19 pandemic. If you are interested, you can read more about this digital divade between generations, and possible answers to the problem, in the UNECE link at the bottom of the page.

Digital Competence

This test was fun to do! I find myself quite adept according to this test, though I must say I was not surprised. I interacti with technology so much in my daily life, that a worse score would be a surprising. I communicate daily with patients only by writing in chat, and have become very good at showing my meaning even though I cannot be heard or seen by the patient. I think this test shows pretty accurately my skills, this was a really fun assignment.

Self evaluation

This was quite a nice assignment, I think. I knew most of the sites mentioned in the assignment itself and had used them before, but when reading articles of my fellow students I found that they had written about many apps that I was not familiar with. It was very interesting to read about them. I am quite good in using internet and social media, as I work with computers and mostly converce with patient in chat or phone. I love videogames and such, and am in contact with computers and gaming consols a lot in my free time also, and this is partly why I was not surprised at my results at the digital competense test.

Interesting reads:

Digi citizen
DIGI CITIZEN
DIGI CITIZEN

Source links:

https://unece.org/digitalization/press/ageing-digital-era-unece-highlights-key-actions-ensure-digital-inclusion-older