Improving Electronic Health Communication Through Portals. Eija H. eHealth week 2010 (Barcelona: CCIB Convention Centre; 2010)

1. Empowering Digital Health
Consumers
Eija Hukka
Development Manager
National Institute for Health and Welfare, Finland
eija.hukka@thl.fi

2. National Institute for Health and
Welfare (THL)
• Formed 1 January 2009 through
the merger of the National
Public Health Institute (KTL) and
the National Research and
Development Centre for Welfare
and Health (STAKES)
• Operates under the Ministry of
Social Affairs and Health
(MSAH)

3. National Institute for Health and
Welfare (THL)
• Mission:
• THL promotes the well-being and health of the
population, prevents diseases and social
problems, and supports social and health
services.
• Funding
• Total budget in 2009 is 96 million euros: 64%
from the State Budget and 36% from other
funding sources
• Personnel
• Permanent staff: 927, fixed-term project staff:
425
• Department of Communication and PR
• 53 persons

5. Preparedness for A(H1N1)v
influenza epidemic (swine flu)
• National Preparedness Plan for Influenza
Pandemic in 2006
• MSAH and THL work closely with the EU
Commission and the European Centre for
Disease Control
• Instructions to the state provincial offices,
hospital districts, educational authorities and
places of education, municipal day care
authorities and day care units
• Centralised communication to the public

6. Communication to the public
• Mass media (regular press
meetings, newsletters, press
releases, constant writing)
• Information to different target
groups
• Print materials (posters, leaflets)
• The influenza telephone hotline
• Outdoor campaign
• TV-spots, radio podcasts

7. Internet communication
• Web pages
• An information package to
the public & health
professionals
• Social media
• Banners to the main
channels of social media
e.g. Facebook, Messenger,
Suomi24 chat
• Videos published in the
YouTube

8. Lessons learned…
• Well annotated content improved November 2009
THL’s Google ranking after ”swine
flu” was added to the ontology.
• Important to use the terms people
understand (H1N1 = ”swine flu”)
• ”No single source of
information stands out or
stands alone.”

9. Lessons learned…
• For the first time in history more people are
turning to the Internet than to health
professionals for health information
(manhanttanRESEARCH)
• Portals are important channels, but not enough
• Partnership and interactive communication with
citizens is the key

10. The digital health consumer
…wants to get the information:
• from multiple sources
• in understandable form
• from peers/family as well as
from experts
• whenever he/she needs it
• using whatever device
I

11. The digital health consumer wants a
second opinion

12. But the web is a mess…

13. Semantics is making the web more
intelligent and interoperable

14. Why semantics?
• To share common understanding of the
structure of information among people and
among computers
• To be able to reuse the content in different
settings
• To avoid ”re-inventing the wheel”
• To better take advantage of the social media

15. A second generation world wide
web
People are:
• Seeking information
• Sharing their own data &
experiences
• Connecting with each other
• Seeking information
published by peers

16. Anytime, anyplace and any device
• Personalized search that finds the right
answers
• The digital consumer chooses what to believe
and whom he/she shares with
• Self-management via web-based
communication system
• Facilitating interactive communication & virtual
communities
• Supporting decision & enabling transactions

17. Filling the gap between…
eHealth Care and the digital health consumer

18. Using social media in health
education
• Goal: Improve the H1N1
vaccination coverage among the
younger generation
• Channels: Facebook and IRC-
Gallery
• Online conversation, answering
questions, quizz, FAQ, videos
• cooperation with the Finnish
celebrities
• Partners: MSAH, THL, The Finnish
Student Health Service (FSHS),
The Finnish Red Cross, City of
Helsinki (Net Nurse –service)

19. The future is social & mobile
• A real-time web is the next logical step in the
Internet’s evolution.
-OM Malig, Giga OM (2009)
• eHealth information & services are becoming more
• Ubiquitous
• Interoperable
• Mobile (over 50% of world’s households carry a mobile
device)
• Location-based (location awareness)

20. The future is already here
”No one knows everything,
everyone knows something,
all knowledge resides in networks”
(Levy, 1997)