We have issued a regulation in accordance with the Act on the Secondary Use of Health and Social Data (Secondary Use Act) on the information content, concepts and information structures of data descriptions. The regulation concerns the secondary use of social and health data.
As data controllers, organisations within the scope of the Secondary Use Act must prepare data descriptions for the data contents of their data resources. These organisations include public service providers in social welfare and health care.
The purpose of the data description regulation is to define common data description principles for the description of data and the information contained in the data of social welfare and health care registrars.
Harmonised data descriptions, assembled in one place, facilitate and enhance the secondary use of data collected for different primary uses. Well-designed data descriptions also help data controllers to administer data sets.
The draft regulation was circulated for comment in November–December 2020.
On 15 February 2021, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health issued a decree that sets the schedule for data descriptions.
You can find out more about the regulation by clicking the link below.
- Regulation of the Health and Social Data Permit Authority: Data contents, concepts and data structures for data descriptions (PDF file, 390 kB). Issued on 1 February 2021, entered into force on 1 February 2021
- See also: Decree of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health on the obligation of the controller and the data permit authority to prepare a data description (finlex.fi, in Finnish)