Integrating Data Sources to Improve Infectious Disease Surveillance In Finland

In Finland, the digitalisation of health care information is advanced, but flaws exist e.g., having multiple independent registers of infectious diseases data of which several involve manual data entry, and have considerable delay. It is the objective of this proposal to improve registers, and to integrate data sources, to form a comprehensive, resilient information management system for infectious diseases surveillance in Finland. The project, conducted by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, is divided into eight work packages: 1) coordination and dissemination; 2) linkage of register data on notified infections, vaccinations and health care visits forming a new SURVEILLANCE PLATFORM; 3) upgrade of epidemic intelligence data; 4) collection of participatory surveillance data; 5) analysis of unstructured, electronic patient records; 6) integration of medicine prescription data; 7) integration of microbiological data; 8) integration of mortality data, laboratory data and data on social circumstances. The main result will be a sophisticated, up-to-date infectious diseases surveillance system. The anticipated effects, apart from the general improvement of the available surveillance data, are better pandemic preparedness, improved treatments and interventions, and the facilitation of decision making. The lessons learnt in building the platform and utilising electronic patient records for surveillance purposes will be shared with and benefit all EU Member States.