The data stored in the Kanta Services is processed into an easily accessible format for research, statistics, and authorities.
Client and patient data will be collected from all Kanta Services onto a single Kanta data platform. This allows data to be centrally available for various secondary use needs.
Social welfare and health care service providers, such as wellbeing services counties, can request statistics on the data they store in Kanta by submitting a request for information. For example, wellbeing services counties can use this data to develop and monitor the area’s services.
Utilising social welfare and heath care data
From a research perspective, the social welfare and health care data held in the Kanta Services are unique. The data processed on the data platform can be utilised in e.g.
- knowledge-based management
- research
- statistics
- in development and innovation activities
- teaching.
For example, data collected from the Kanta Services form the basis for a national diabetes register to monitor and improve the quality of diabetes care. Learn more about the diabetes register (in Finnish) .
Data is also shared with other registers, for example:
Available data content
As the Kanta Services and their use expand in social welfare and health care, the amount of data content available for secondary use is also increasing.
What is special about Kanta's client and patient data is that, as a rule, they cover data from the entire country and for all citizens. This makes it possible for researchers to obtain data for research purposes in a uniform format from one place and with a single application.
At the moment, the data material available in Kanta includes
- prescriptions and dispensing
- diagnostics
- laboratory and vaccination data
- procedures
- physiological measurements
- medical statements.
Next in the pipeline for secondary use of patient data are
- emergency medical report data
- risk data
- oral health care data.
The first social welfare client data will become available for secondary use during 2024. These data will include information about client relationship management and decisions.
Health and social data are processed under strict data protection rules
Personal data cannot be linked to a specific person for secondary use of the data. When research is carried out with Kanta data, the studies are targeted at patient and customer groups, and the data submitted for them are primarily pseudonymised. Pseudonymisation refers to the processing of personal data in such a way that personal data can no longer be linked to a specific person without additional information.
Findata awards access permits for research data
The right to use the Kanta Services’ material must be requested from Findata, i.e., the authority for data access in the field of social welfare and health care (findata.fi).
More detailed descriptions of the Kanta Services’ material can be found in the data resources catalogue maintained by Findata and THL:
It is also possible to combine the materials with other data, such as material you have collected, or material obtained with permission from another party. The data is combined by Findata or a statistical authority.
Findata's operations are supervised by the Office of the Data Protection Ombudsman and Valvira, among other supervisory bodies. The use of data is determined by the Act on the Secondary Use of Health and Social Data.
You can restrict or object to the processing of your data provided from Kanta for research purposes through Findata. More information about your rights and instructions on how to restrict the secondary use of your data can be found on Findata’s website: Rights to your data (findata.fi).
You can read more about restricting the processing of your data subject to disclosure to the registers of the National Institute for Health and Welfare in the registers’ privacy notices (thl.fi).
A request to restrict or object to the processing of data cannot be addressed to Kanta, as Kanta is not the controller of the data. The controllers of the social welfare client data and patient data stored in Kanta are wellbeing services counties or private health care providers, for example.
It is not possible to object to the processing of data for a secondary purpose if processing is based on a legal obligation of the controller. For example, the data may be used in situations wherein an authority carries out the supervision of health care professionals or pharmacies.