A health care service provider (e.g. a wellbeing services county or a private medical centre) processes and accesses your patient data in the patient information system that they use. The service provider has access to the patient information which has been entered about you in the various units of that service provider.
If any information entered by other service providers is needed in order to provide your care, this information can be accessed through the Kanta Services if you have given your consent to patient data sharing.
Your consent to data sharing enables the transfer of your data between the professionals who provide your care
To be able to provide you with good care, the professionals treating you must have access to all necessary information about your state of health and the examinations that have been performed on you. Allowing your patient information to be shared between health care service providers makes it easier and quicker to provide you with the appropriate care.
- Example: During a holiday trip, you need to use healthcare services in another wellbeing services county. If you have given consent to data sharing, the attending physician may, if required, utilise your patient data that were recorded in your wellbeing services county, for example, at your local healthcare centre. This will ensure that your physician has access to comprehensive information about you.
Your consent to data sharing allows professionals providing you care to access your data stored in the Kanta Services. Once you have given your consent to data sharing, your data may be shared from Kanta, for example
- between public and private health care service providers
- between wellbeing services counties.
Your data may only be accessed and used if it is necessary for your care. In addition, your data may only be accessed by professionals with whom you have a current treatment relationship.
Consent to data sharing is given separately for health care patient data and social welfare client data. Giving your consent to data sharing is always voluntary.
Where can I give my consent to data sharing?
You can give consent to data sharing once you have received the information on Kanta Services.
You may give your consent to data sharing
- in MyKanta
- when visiting the healthcare service.
If a health care facility notes that you have not given your consent to data sharing, health care professionals may ask you while providing treatment whether you would like to give your consent to data sharing.
Once given, your consent to data sharing will remain valid until further notice. It will apply both to any information on you that was recorded before you gave the consent and to any information that will be recorded later.
You can see on MyKanta when and where you gave your consent to data sharing.
Withdrawing and restricting consent to data sharing
You may withdraw your consent to data sharing at any time. You may do this on MyKanta or when visiting a health care facility.
If you withdraw your consent, your data in the Kanta Services will no longer be shared with other service providers.
Instead of either a general denial or a general consent, you may restrict your consent to data sharing by issuing specific denials of consent. With these denials, you can specify which particular patient information you do not want to be available to other service providers.
Read more about issuing denials.
When is consent to data sharing not necessary?
There are cases where no consent is necessary for using or sharing your patient information; some examples are given below.
Use within the service provider’s patient register
A health care service provider has access to your patient information entered in various units of that service provider. This information may be accessed and used through their patient information system. However, in order for them to be allowed to do so, you must have a current treatment relationship with that service provider. In this case, the data are being used within the service provider’s own patient register, so using the data does not constitute data sharing. This use does not require your consent.
Use of data in Uusimaa
Your consent to data sharing is not required if your patient information is used in public health care in the region of Uusimaa. This use is allowed if you have received information on the Kanta Service.
Emergency situations
In an emergency, your patient information may be accessed via Kanta without your specific consent. However, when issuing denials of consent to data sharing, you can determine specifically whether your restricted patient information may be accessed in case of an emergency, or not even then.
Outsourced care
If you are receiving care as an outsourced service, the service provider providing the care has the right to access any patient information that is relevant for the care being given to you. This use does not require your consent.
Consent to data sharing, minors
If you are the guardian of a minor, you may give consent to data sharing on behalf of the child. If necessary, you may later withdraw such consent. You may give or withdraw your consent to data sharing
- on MyKanta, acting on behalf of the child, or
- when visiting a health care facility.
Please note that if the minor in question has already been assessed by health care professionals as being capable of making their own decisions about access to their data, and has been informed about Kanta Services, you as their guardian are not allowed to give or withdraw consent to data sharing on their behalf on MyKanta.
If a health care professional decides that a minor is mature enough to decide on access to their data themselves, the minor may give consent to data sharing for their patient information. However, such a minor cannot give consent to data sharing on MyKanta; this must be done at a health care facility.
Consent to data sharing, acting on behalf of an adult
You may act on behalf of another adult on MyKanta if you have a Suomi.fi authorisation for this purpose. If you are authorised in this way, you can give consent to data sharing or issue a denial of consent to data sharing on MyKanta or when you visit a social welfare or health care facility. Of course, the person authorising you can also give consent to data sharing or deny such consent.
The consent and denials of consent to data sharing are valid until further notice and can be withdrawn at any time.