An aging population, increasing need for care, and a shrinking workforce, combined with decreasing funding, are creating challenges for public social services and healthcare providers across Europe. The Finnish wellbeing services county of Kanta-Häme has taken a bold leap towards data-driven management and a better customer experience in healthcare and social services with the help of Microsoft Azure.
Social services and healthcare organizations generate a massive amount of data from countless sources, such as patient records, prescriptions, quality of life surveys, as well as human resources and financial administration.
“Earlier, each department utilized the data in its own way. In Kanta-Häme, we recognized that the data we were accumulating could be used in a more intelligent and cost-effective manner,” says Toni Suihko, Chief Development & Information Officer of Kanta-Häme wellbeing services county, one of the 21 wellbeing services counties across Finland responsible for organizing healthcare, social and emergency services in the country.
Located in Southern Finland, Kanta-Häme wellbeing services county provides services to close to 170,000 residents. In the spring of 2023, the wellbeing services county, together with Tietoevry Care, a leading Nordic technology company, began adjusting the Lifecare Data Platform to the region’s needs. Tietoevry Care is a leading provider of health and social care software in the Nordics and is constantly developing innovative solutions for the industry.
Microsoft Azure was selected as the technical platform for the data lake solution, as it offers an excellent foundation for the solutions required by social services and healthcare organizations due to its security, versatile data utilization capabilities, and scalability. In addition, the implementation was fast.
“Kanta-Häme’s new Microsoft Azure-based platform and the first integrations were ready just six months after the project started,” says Katja Antikainen, Chief Data Officer of Kanta-Häme wellbeing services county.
Quality improves by combining data
Kanta-Häme has identified three key levels of data utilization, each of which brings significant benefits.
The first level is the customer, whose path in the service system can be improved with versatile and easily accessible data. Customers are directed to the right service faster and receive suitable and most effective care.
The second level is data-driven management, where the wellbeing services county’s leadership uses data to monitor how quickly customers access services and receive care.
At the third level, the collected data is used, for example, to create a national database on the health of Finns and the functionality of services.
“In practice, by combining data, we can better understand how the customers are benefiting from the treatment received and identify any room for improvement. For example, the costs of aging can be understood more accurately when we consider all the service locations where the elderly receive care,” Suihko says.
Microsoft Azure enables continuous development
The Microsoft Azure environment offers Kanta-Häme a secure way to handle sensitive data. The possibilities for data utilization and further development are excellent.
“Additional services can be deployed flexibly according to our own needs, as well as seamlessly integrated with our existing systems. Azure services are developing rapidly, which ensures that Kanta-Häme always has access to the world’s leading technology solutions,” Suihko states.
The new data lake solution has brought many benefits to the wellbeing services county. Data management is centralized, and data can be utilized in more versatile ways. In addition to higher quality data and more useful tools, cost savings have been achieved.
“Now that we have a cloud-based platform for data processing, artificial intelligence can also be easily utilized in the processing of large amounts of data. As a result, Kanta-Häme is able to develop even better healthcare and social services,” says Antikainen.