The case outlines the challenges that the National Institute for Health and Welfare in Helsinki, Finland is facing in light of an ongoing national health care reform. The health care reform has taken precedence over other research activities, and the Institute is anticipating changes to population health surveillance methods. The Institute elected a new Director General in the fall of 2018 who will influence decisions about which population surveillance data collection methods are used. The Health Monitoring Unit at the Institute fears that the Director General will decide that all surveillance data will be collected using administrative patient registries with the consequent elimination of population health surveys. The team responsible for the 2017 National FinHealth population health survey must determine how they can advocate for the continued use of survey data in population health surveillance
