Population Health Surveillance in Finland: Threats to Historically Dependable Surveillance Methodology
2019
This case study from the Western Public Health Casebook presents a scenario concerning national health care reform in Finland and the challenges the reform presents to researchers at the National Institute for Health and Welfare in Helsinki. The Institute recently elected a new Director General and the Health Monitoring Unit fears that they will influence the methods used in population health surveillance. The Unit is concerned that the Director General will opt for using administrative patient registries and subsequently eliminate population health surveys. In this case, the team responsible for collecting the FinHealth surveys must advocate for continued use of population health survey data over administrative patient registries.
This case contains guidance for instructors, including learning objectives and discussion questions. It is part of a 14-case collection written by students in the MPH class of the Schulich Interfaculty Program in Public Health at Western University, Canada. The cases may be freely copied and used for educational purposes by an accredited educational institution.
Source:
Maatta K et al. Population Health Surveillance in Finland: Threats to Historically Dependable Surveillance Methodology. Western Public Health Casebook 2019. Public Health Casebook Publishing 2019. https://www.schulich.uwo.ca/publichealth/cases/casebook_2019.html.