With real-time eConsultation, a primary health care professional can consult a specialist during an appointment. This means that the specialist can review the patient’s status during the same appointment.

In May 2021, real-time eConsultation was extended to all health centers in the HUS area, and it was taken up by 53 of them during 2021. We planned deployment projects with several areas for early 2022.

Our real-time eConsultation services were available in several specialties and on specific disorders such as ADHD, wound treatment, skin diseases, cardiology, neurology, gender dysphoria, sleep disorders, and pediatric emergency medicine. Moreover, eConsultation was piloted in pulmonary diseases towards the end of the year under review.

User numbers suffered from the impacts of the pandemic, as has been the case in many other services. However, the forthcoming wellbeing services counties have a shared desire to improve eConsultation, which is a concrete tool for integration between primary health care and specialist medical care. We continue to evolve its use in collaboration with primary health care providers in the HUS area.