TEHIK to invest up to €7 million in health management desktop development

The Centre for Health and Welfare Information Systems (TEHIK) plans to undertake development and maintenance work on its health management desktop platform, with a budget of up to €7 million over a four-year period. The aim is to provide doctors and other healthcare workers with faster and more comprehensive access to patient health information. Tender comparison will begin in mid-summer.

The Centre for Health and Welfare Information Systems (TEHIK) is planning major development work on its health management desktop platform, through which doctors and other healthcare workers access patient data. The development budget is set at up to €7 million, with work expected to last four years.

What is the health management desktop?

The health management desktop is a nationwide digital platform, whose development began in 2023. It brings together in one place information about examinations, analyses, and appointments carried out for a patient across different treatment facilities, saving healthcare workers' time. Thanks to the platform, healthcare professionals do not need to search through separate databases, and patients do not need to repeat answers to the same questions with each new doctor.

Kaido Vaade, product owner of TEHIK's health management desktop, explained to ERR that the desktop grew out of the logic of an earlier data viewer, but should now transform from a merely data-viewing environment into a broader health data handling platform. "The main goal is to provide healthcare workers and healthcare service providers with a unified work tool from which important health information about a patient can be obtained quickly and clearly," Vaade said.

What does the development include?

The planned work includes software further development, improvement of user experience, maintenance, and bringing the platform into compliance with regulatory requirements. Vaade stressed that this is not a procurement of one specific new feature, but a framework for the entire platform's development and maintenance work.

The changes will primarily affect healthcare workers, with a focus on simplifying their daily work through better patient care. The aim is to reduce fragmentation between different systems and create the opportunity in the future to customize views based on role and work needs. For patients, Vaade said the impact will be indirect and phased.

Direction of open modules

Vaade highlighted as an important development direction the plan to enable the future platform to add modules supporting health management and create controlled access for external development partners. "This capability does not exist today. This does not mean open access to patient data, but rather a platform development model in compliance with rules and requirements," he explained.

In the longer term, the health management desktop should operate in tandem with a patient-facing health portal in such a way that data exchange through the health information system would support more comprehensive care from both the specialist and patient perspective. As a practical example, Vaade highlighted the management of medication regimens.

"The goal is not simply to make a user interface update, but to further develop the health management desktop into a central and scalable work tool that supports healthcare workers' decisions and helps to better utilize patient health information," Vaade emphasized.

TEHIK will begin comparing bids from potential contractors in mid-summer. In the evaluation, the hourly rate will account for ten percent of the result, while 90 percent depends on a trial project.