Kouri, Pirkko

Reponen, Jarmo

English

Journal.fi

    EDITORIAL   14.04.2022    FinJeHeW 2022;14(1)  1 Many facets of digitalization in health and social care, eHealth in a lifecycle In spite of the challenging pandemic time Finnish Society of Telemedicine and eHealth (FSTeH) orga-nized the annual conference in October 2021, and changed the traditional conference format to a hybrid conference. In Finland domestic partici-pants were on site in Oulu while international par-ticipants were connected via a videoconference link. With the support of International Society for Telemedicine and eHealth (ISfTeH) the conference gained a good visibility and the number of partici-pants was satisfactory in these difficult times. This FinJeHeW issue is publishing selected peer-reviewed research papers from our conference. The conference themes were discussing digital health trends and solutions from European, Scan-dinavian and Finnish perspectives. Our knowledge was updated e.g. about assessment of digital ap-plications and services, innovation activities, eHealth skills, citizen involvement and accessible health record portals for patients.  This time the high quality scientific papers pre-sented in the conference revealed the widening borders of digitalization in health and social care. In Digital Health research domain, the topics in-clude a wide range from basic research like intelli-gent data analytics in genetics to information management and sharing in real life networked health care environment. Not only technology and cybersecurity, but also competence building and empathy needed in discussion with those who are in danger to be socially excluded from the services are hot discussion topics. This issue reveals, that the new buzzword Digital Health is here to stay. Furthermore, digital social and health care is al-ways multidisciplinary, and utilizes versatile digital solutions for the benefit of patients and clients. Our conference offers a platform to all actors to show their contribution. In the flowing chapters we summarize the highlights of the peer review articles based on the scientific presentations in the conference poster.  The article ‘Distributed network and service archi-tecture for future digital healthcare’ written by Harjula et al reveals how combined utilization of technologies in gathering patient data such as new medical imaging and monitoring instrumentation, and Internet of Medical Things, are available for medical use. The authors explore the potential of smart technologies for managing the complex tasks of connecting patients, personnel, hospital systems, electronic health records and medical instrumentation into a unified framework. Future aim is to demonstrate the feasibility of the edge-cloud continuum as the basic approach for offering efficient and secure distributed eHealth and eWel-fare services, and provide an outlook for our fu-ture research.  Jääskelä et al discuss in their article ‘Digi-HTA, assessment framework for digital healthcare ser-vices: information security and data protection in health technology – initial experiences’ of the se-curity aspects of medical devices, services and applications. The Digi-HTA toolkit for health tech-nology assessment of novel digital solutions like mobile applications, robotics and artificial intelli-gence includes information security and data pro-tection assessment domains. The result of the Digi-HTA evaluation process is a recommendation that decision-makers can use during the procure-ment process.  Keränen et al discussed regional patient infor-mation exchange between public primary and     EDITORIAL   14.04.2022    FinJeHeW 2022;14(1)  2 hospital care in the article ‘Regional health infor-mation exchange outside of the centralized na-tional services for public health care in Finland: A national survey’. According to consecutive surveys the overall availability of regional health infor-mation exchange (RHIE) services not using the centralized national health information exchange (Kanta services) has changed little between years 2017-2020. Functional types of RHIE meaning the role, use and types of RHIE in hospital districts in Finland varies greatly in 2020. The survey presents three different types of non-Kanta RHIE (one-way, symmetrical, full symmetrical) in those hospital districts that did not already have a common pa-tient information system for both primary and hospital care. Because of the variation, there is a need for region specific discussions and solutions to ensure the best patient information flow.  Rajamäki’s article (in Finnish) clarifies ethical is-sues related to cybersecurity via four different frameworks: biomedical ethics, healthcare ethics, the core role of health information technology, and cybersecurity value clusters. The research focuses on value conflicts between different per-spectives. It presents a conceptual model to sup-port ethical decision-making.  Based on their study Rostami et al wrote the arti-cle ‘Cancer Prediction Using Graph-based Gene Selection and Explainable Classifier’. They suggest an artificial intelligence decision system to help physicians with a simple and human-interpretable set of rules for transparent cancer prediction. The indicative results on five cancer datasets show that the created model can improve the accuracy of cancer prediction and reduce the computational complexity.  Jarva et al studied which aspects influence the digital competence development of health care professionals. The study collected information from two countries: Finland and Sweden. They found that the development of digital health com-petence is related to digital health adoption, con-tinuous learning, and how managers support their learning and give enough resources.  Kielo-Viljamaa evaluated health care testbed activ-ities and their maturity in Finland and two other Nordic countries. The study revealed that the testbed activities mainly received resources via various projects. The testbed facilities were both real-life environments and test or simulation labs. Websites, social media, events, and networks were used in marketing and communications. The activi-ties were mainly testing single products or services rather than continuous co-creation. The testbed organizations expressed a need for more struc-tured and better coordinated processes and activi-ties in order to ensure the management, quality and effectiveness of their testbed services.  The changing world of working life and digitalisa-tion have increased the diversity of work and nowadays work is increasingly being done in virtu-al work communities. Nissinen et al showed in their study (in Finnish) the need for digitalized workplace survey as part of occupational health services. Although little progress has been made in the use of technology, it is essential to continue the digital development of the work process. Technology enables real-time observation of work, even in workplaces where occupational health professionals cannot be physically present.  Äijö et al studied in their article professionals’ ex-periences related to eHealth and technology dur-ing the rehabilitation processes in the Northern Savonia region. The study found different catego-ries related to technology and digitalisation expe-riences such as technical problems causing chal-lenges in rehabilitation, inadequate information and patient data management, and poor or lacking data-applications, ICT-tools and systems. There is a need for more client-centric eHealth and rehabili-    EDITORIAL   14.04.2022    FinJeHeW 2022;14(1)  3 tation processes, wherein the rehabilitation work-ers’ needs are met – physically and psychosocially.  The articles in this special issue show, that the new umbrella term Digital Health encompasses a larger entity of research and application areas than eHealth used to have [1] Digital Health adds ad-vanced computer sciences like genomics and arti-ficial intelligence to the traditional eHealth toolbox. Based on the articles digitalisation in so-cial and health care offers new solutions, and the present challenges make us constantly develop novel solutions for the better health and wellbe-ing.  References [1] WHO regional office for Europe. Digital Health. WHO Europe; 2022 [cited 29.3.2022]. Available at: https://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/Health-systems/digital-health. Pirkko Kouri, PhD, MHSc, PHN, RN, Chair of the Scientific committee #eHealth2022 conference, Secretary of FSTeH; VicePresident of ISfTeH  Jarmo Reponen, MD, PhD, Professor of Practice, University of Oulu, President of the #eHealth2022 conference, Vice-president of FSTeH 

Many facets of digitalization in health and social care, eHealth in a lifecycle

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Many facets of digitalization in health and social care, eHealth in a lifecycle

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