Sending Patient Summaries abroad

Sending Patient Summaries abroad

Your data may be used in health care services in other European countries if you consent to this in MyKanta. If you fall ill while travelling, for instance, a summary of your health data can be transferred from Finland to the health care professionals treating you, if necessary.

In order to ensure the best possible care for you abroad, it is important that health care professionals have access to up-to-date data on your health. In MyKanta, you can consent to the use of your patient data for the purpose of providing you with care in other European countries. Please note that health care professionals in other EU Member States will not have direct access to all of your data; they will only receive a summary of your key health data.

Currently, patient data recorded in Finland can only be disclosed to Estonian health care services, but this feature will be extended to further countries in 2024. Finnish residents using health care services in Estonia can ask the treatment provider whether it is able to access patient data in Finland.

The Patient Summary contains your key health data

Your health data is transferred to health care professionals in other EU member states by means of a Patient Summary, which is a compilation of your most important health information. The Patient Summary provides health care professionals with limited patient data about you that have been stored in the Kanta Services by health care services in Finland. The information shown includes prescriptions, allergies, diagnoses, and procedures performed.

Even if you have prohibited the disclosure of certain patient data and prescriptions between wellbeing services counties in Finland, these will be included in the Patient Summary. Health care professionals in Finland cannot retrieve a Patient Summary of your health data from the Kanta Services.

If a minor has prohibited the disclosure of some of their patient data to their guardian, these data will not be included on their Patient Summary.

The Patient Summary can only be used with your consent

Your Patient Summary can only be transferred to health care services in another European country upon request if you have given your consent to this in MyKanta. Your consent to the transfer of your Patient Summary to other European countries is valid indefinitely once given, and you can revoke it in MyKanta at any time.

Please go to the new version of MyKanta to give your consent. Log in to MyKanta as before at kanta.fi. Once you have logged in, you will be able to select the new version of MyKanta.

The health care professional treating you must confirm during treatment that you permit them to retrieve your health data from Finland. Kanta Services will also verify that you have given your consent in MyKanta before disclosing your data.

Giving consent on behalf of another person

A minor may give and withdraw consent to the disclosure of their data in MyKanta if they have received health care services and have been provided with a notification of the use of their data in social welfare and health care, i.e. the ‘Kanta information’. Later in 2024, a guardian may give and withdraw consent on behalf of a minor if the guardian has received the aforementioned notification on behalf of the minor.

An authorised person acting on behalf of an adult will gain similar powers to give and withdraw consent in MyKanta on behalf of the adult later in 2024. In order to act on behalf of another person, you must have a Suomi.fi authorisation for Managing matters related to healthcare (suomi.fi).

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Last updated 6.6.2024