The UNA Ydin integration and information management solution aims to solve the challenges of information sharing in the social welfare and health care sector

UNA Ydin (Core) is a part of the UNA development work, the objective of which is a comprehensive system reform in the social welfare and health care sector. Jussi Seilola, Digia’s Chief Architect in social welfare and health care services, shares in our blog information on the implementation of the UNA Ydin integration and information management solution.

Finland is facing a major challenge, as the organisation of the social welfare and health care services must be widely reconsidered. One of the major obstacles to the modernisation of social welfare and health care services has been the existing information systems, which do not support the sharing of information between several parties. The UNA Ydin integration and information management solution enables nationwide utilisation of client data. The solution is implemented by the Digia-Atostek consortium.

In a nutshell, the UNA Ydin integration and information management solution receives or retrieves client information from a wide range of sources, aggregates data in commensurate format into an internal open data model and provides information through open interfaces as and when needed by systems and applications.

At a later phase, the storing of information will be enabled to the other direction as well; from user applications and systems through UNA Ydin directly into the source systems.

Figure 1: The UNA YDIN integration and information management solution enables customer-oriented services and service development for the social welfare and health care sector. 

This is how the UNA Ydin integration and information management solution is implemented

The following design principles have been emphasised in the solution design:

• Low life cycle costs
• Modularity and small grain size of modules
• Openness and independence from suppliers
• Ecosystem thinking
• Use of production-tested modules
• Adaptability and continuity

In the solution, the design principles are implemented, for example, in the following ways:

• Full utilisation of public cloud services, microservice architecture and licence-free open source code components enable agile development and the achievement of scalability and cost benefits.
• OpenEHR, an open data model that is developed internationally, supports the ecosystem development.
• The solution’s continuity and adaptability is ensured through genuine modularity, in which the grain size of the modules is sufficiently small and the components of the solution are linked to each other through open and documented APIs.
• Using the readily available, production-tested functionalities of the eRA software package in the integration of national data sources.

Figure 2: The solution architecture for UNA Ydin integration and information management

The capacity and application platform of the solution is the public Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud platform. The platform provided by the solution enables flexible deployment of various innovative services for the needs of the social welfare and health care sector. The selected solution platform enables, for example, cost-effective and agile utilisation of the latest innovations in the field of artificial intelligence and machine learning.

OpenEHR data model is the core of the solution

The core of our solution is the openEHR data model, with the large, global ecosystem built around it. The openEHR data model is open to all openEHR users without any system supplier dependence. The data model is based on international practices and standards.

The development of the data model is the responsibility of the openEHR Foundation. The development of the data model content is mainly carried out by social welfare and health care professionals. The ideology of openEHR is based on transparency so that, in principle, projects share their output with the community, and other projects can freely use the outputs either as such or modify them to fit the needs of the project.

eRA plays a key role in national integrations

In national integrations, the solution uses the eRA software package, which has been tested in production. eRA is a Kanta-certified, A-class information system for social welfare and health care services. The certification covers electronic prescriptions, archives for patient data, archives for client data in social welfare and Kanta intermediary services. Among other things, the following national integrations have been implemented in the eRA software package:

• Patient data repository/Kanta
• Client data archive for social welfare services/Kanta (Kansa)
• Electronic prescriptions and pharmaceutical database/Kanta
• Smart card revocation list/Population Register Centre
• Code service/National Institute of Health and Welfare
• Register of health care professionals/Terhikki and Suosikki – Role and attribute service/National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health
• Register of organisations/Valveri/National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health

Connections to the national shared service data warehouses and registers, such as the population information system, go through the Suomi.fi service bus and the Suomi.fi access server.

Read more in our press release: UNA, Digia and Atostek signed an agreement on a new information flow solution for the social welfare and health care sector