Finland is a pioneer in the development of the health sector platform economy. The Kanta service maintained by the Social Insurance Institute (Kela) is a good example of this. It includes a prescription centre, a medicine database and My Kanta (Pentikäinen et al., 2019). However, the full potential of the platform economy and the health data associated with it has not been exploited. For example, the platform economy enables the use of machine learning in pre-screening and assessing the need for treatment (Kretschmer & Khashabi, 2020; Tenhunen et al., 2018), availability of mental health services 24/7 (Blumenfield & Levin-Scherz, 2020), a better situation picture of home care (Rotenstein & Friedman, 2020) and the avoidance of unnecessary patient transfers (Zenooz, 2020).
The platform economy can make the health sector accessible to new actors. For example, Amazon has expanded its operations to pharmacy services, in which it can use its platform to offer not only medicines but also a client health profile, prescription and payment data management and other support services (Shieber & Lunden, 2020). Platform-type multi-actor ecosystems are already being created. These include Apple HealthKit which, for example, makes transferring patient data between different actors easy (Rotenstein & Friedman, 2020).
Compatible interfaces between actors are crucial for creating platform ecosystems. They enable interconnected services including remote care, making appointments, and organising transport (Anderson et al., 2020). A key resource in the healthcare platform economy is data that can be collected on the patient in real time and in many ways throughout the patient’s history for various purposes (Chen & Patel, 2020; Kretschmer & Khashabi, 2020; Zenoz, 2020). This data can, for instance, be used to produce personalized health services (Chen & Patel, 2020) and new medicines (Parra-Moyano et al., 2020). New wellbeing solutions (wristbands and other services) can be combined with other health data, making it possible to see the big picture of the patient’s health (MEAE, 2018). The benefits of data analytics can emerge in many ways, for instance as a narrowing of health gaps between population groups, better allocation of resources, improved quality of care and increased welfare of individual patients (Neittaanmäki et al., 2019).
The current legislation encourages health sector actors to develop and maintain their solutions in their own local ecosystems.
Fragmented and siloed healthcare solutions prevent the creation of innovative and effective solutions that use health data. Health and welfare data are not accumulated, the patient cannot control their data, and the data are not transferred along as the treatment process progresses.
Platform-type solutions must often be highly tailored to be compatible with the treatment process.
In this policy brief, we give three recommendations aiming to accelerate the platform economy in the health sector for the benefit of citizens, businesses and society. Our recommendations aim to address structural and legislative constraints in the health sector, emphasising cooperation while dismantling organisational and regional barriers.
These challenges and recommendations are based on the results of the Policy Rationales in the Shift to Digital Platform Economy research project funded by Business Finland. The policy recommendation is based on a comprehensive literature analysis of over 100 research articles, books and policy reports (Aalto et al., 2020) and the results of an expert workshop for the health sector. A preliminary survey was conducted for the workshop, and a background document analysing the challenges was produced. Leading experts in platform economy and digital health care from the Finnish private and public sector participated in the workshop. The workshop held in March 2021 was attended by 20 people.
Professor Robin Gustafsson
Aalto University, Department of Industrial Engineering and Management
P.O. Box 15500, 00076 AALTO
Tel. +358 50 31 60 981
[email protected]
@robingustafs #platformeconomy
Researcher Niko Lipiäinen
Aalto University, Department of Industrial Engineering and Management
P.O. Box 15500, 00076 AALTO
Tel. +358 50 33 12 189
[email protected]
@NLipiain #platformeconomy
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Anderson, E., Belcher, N., & Parker, G. (2020). Will the coronavirus spark an overdue platform revolution in health care? MIT Sloan. https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideasmadetomatter/willcoronavirussparkoverdue platformrevolutionhealthcare
Blumenfield, S., & LevinScherz, J. (2020). Digital Tools Are Revolutionizing Mental Health Care in the U.S. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2020/12/digitaltoolsarerevolutionizingmentalhealth careintheus
Chen, X. S., & Patel, M. S. (2020). Digital Health Tools Offer New Opportunities for Personalized Care. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2020/11/digitalhealthtoolsoffernewopportunitiesfor personalizedcare
Kretschmer, T., & Khashabi, P. (2020). Digital Transformation and Organization Design: An Integrated Approach. California Management Review, 62(4), 86–104. https://doi.org/10.1177/0008125620940296
Neittaanmäki, P., Lehto, M., Ruohonen, T., Kaasalainen, K., & Karla, T. (2019). Suomen terveysdata ja sen hyödyntäminen. https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/63327
ParraMoyano, J., Schmedders, K., & Pentland, A. (2020). What Managers Need to Know About Data Exchanges: The Era of Bigdata Silos is Fading. Shared Data is the Future. MIT Sloan Management Review, 61(4), 39–44.
Pentikäinen, M., Kärkkäinen, A., Mykkänen, J., Penttinen, J., Hyppönen, K., Siira, T., & Jalonen, M. (2019). Sosiaali- ja terveydenhuollon asiakas- ja potilastietojen kansallinen kokonaisarkkitehtuuri. https://www. julkari.fi/handle/10024/138840
Rotenstein, L. S., & Friedman, L. S. (2020). The Pitfalls of Telehealth—And How to Avoid Them. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2020/11/thepitfallsoftelehealthandhowtoavoidthem
Shieber, J., & Lunden, I. (2020). Amazon launches Amazon Pharmacy, a delivery service for prescription medications. TechCrunch. https://social.techcrunch.com/2020/11/17/amazonlaunchesamazon pharmacyitsdeliveryserviceforprescriptionmedications/
TEM. (2018). Kestävän kasvun agenda—Kasvukortti—Terveys- ja hyvinvointialojen uudet tutkimusalat. https:// tem.fi/kestavankasvunagenda
Tenhunen, H., Hirvonen, P., Linna, M., Halminen, O., & Hörhammer, I. (2018). Intelligent Patient Flow Management System at a Primary Healthcare Center – The Effect on Service Use and Costs. Decision Support Systems and Education, 142–146. https://doi.org/10.3233/9781614999218142
THL. (2021). Palvelujen laatu ja vaikuttavuus—Sote-uudistus—THL. Terveyden ja hyvinvoinnin laitos. https:// thl.fi/fi/web/soteuudistus/tulevaisuudensosiaalijaterveyskeskus/toimintamallejajamenetelmiatyon tueksi/palvelujenlaatujavaikuttavuus
Zenooz, A. M. (2020). Telehealth Is Working for Patients. But What About Doctors? Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2020/11/telehealthisworkingforpatientsbutwhataboutdoctors
The project "Policy Rationals in the Shift to Digital Platform Economy" run by Aalto University studies the impacts of digital platform economy to the business and competitiveness of firms and the current state of Finnish innovation funding.