title: Finnish health telematics approach for patient centric care.
abstract: It was to be expected that questions concerning the implementation of new technology were to arise in many respects. Nowadays hospitals cannot function effectively and profitably without medical technology equipment like magnetic resonance imaging devices, computerised tomography and ultrasound equipment or automatic laboratory analytic. The status of information technology is different. Although substantial advances have been achieved in medical technology in healthcare we are still far from taking full advantage of the potential of new services in information technology in real life in the hospitals and health centres. Products and services are still hard and difficult to use and out of reach for many professionals and people especially in rural regions. One of the problems prohibiting healthcare professional to move real e-work environment is the complexity of IT-applications and the price levels of those applications. The most important stakeholder is the consumer, currently at the periphery of the debate but beginning to move from the periphery to the centre, where the consumer's demands will be better heard--and perhaps even met. The dilemma for government, managers, health insures and health professionals, though, is that consumers demands and health gain are not always ad idem. What is the optimum relationship between government, healthcare professionals and consumers accountable and what factors will eventually change the relationship?
authors.affiliation: North Karelia Hospital District, Joensuu, Finland. pentti.itkonen@pkshp.fi
authors.forename: Pentti
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Itkonen
mesh_terms: D005387:Finland; D006801:Humans; D008491:Medical Informatics Applications; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized / Q000458:organization & administration; D008511:Medicine; D018802:Patient-Centered Care; D013038:Specialization