The new Health Portal has replaced Digilugu

The Estonian Health Insurance Fund and the Health and Welfare Information Systems Centre (TEHIK) have launched the new Health Portal at www.terviseportaal.ee, replacing the current Patient Portal www.digilugu.ee.

Digilugu closed in parallel with the launch of the Health Portal. When a person goes to www.digilugu.ee out of habit, they will automatically be redirected to the Health Portal page.

‘As the patient portal is now over 15 years old and is somewhat lagging behind technologically, the creation of a new portal is necessary because access to health data needs to keep up with the times,’ said Kady Adamson, Project Manager for the Health Portal at the Health and Welfare Information Systems Centre.

According to Evgeni Nikolaevski, Product Manager of the Health Portal at the Estonian Health Insurance Fund, the Health Portal provides convenient and user-friendly access to health data and is a gateway to health services.

‘In the first phase, the Health Portal will offer people the health-related services that were also available on the old Patient Portal. Thanks to the new portal, user convenience will be improved, meaning that people will be able to access health information more conveniently and different topics will be categorised in a more logical way,’ said the product manager of the Health Portal.

Before logging in to the Health Portal, you will be presented with a front page featuring health promotion content that will include a variety of evidence-based health information. When you enter the Health Portal, you will first see the ‘My Dashboard’ view, which displays your upcoming appointments, outstanding prescriptions, examinations, tests, and appointments in the last six months, as well as vaccination recommendations. As a new feature, people will have access to ‘My Health History’, which will allow them to filter in detail information on appointments, tests, examinations, vaccinations, and information related to emergency medical care, hospitalisation, or surgeries. There are also a number of smaller additions to services.

In the near future, in addition to the health declaration and the possibility to fill in statements of intention, it is planned to add the possibility to fill in health information about yourself and your loved ones and to complete health assessment questionnaires prior to appointments. In addition to the above, the national eBooking system will become part of the Health Portal in 2024 and will no longer be a separate environment. This will make it easier for patients to book appointments or change and cancel these appointments.

Moreover, new IT solutions will be added to the Health Portal to increase people’s own participation and responsibility in health-related decision-making. ‘One of the features most requested by users is the possibility to receive notifications on things like prescriptions, vaccinations, and doctor’s visits. The service will be added to the Health Portal in 2024, and then, people will be able to set up notifications delivered via text message or email,’ Evgeni Nikolaevski confirmed.

End users from different backgrounds, including visually impaired people, were involved in the development of the Health Portal. ‘We requested feedback and asked people to test the first services. By now, the feedback has been processed and changes have been made accordingly. In addition, during the development, we focused on ensuring that the portal does not need to be replaced in ten years’ time, but can be continuously updated with new and necessary features,’ said Kady Adamson.

People can give feedback on the new Health Portal via the ‘Feedback’ button on the right-hand side of the portal or directly via the TEHIK helpdesk email at abi [at] tehik.ee (abi[at]tehik[dot]ee). User feedback and comments are extremely important to provide the most convenient and user-friendly environment possible for all people in Estonia.

The development of the Health Portal was co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) at a total cost of €1.24 million.