Unique Gene Variants and Population-wide Registers – How Can Finnish Data Accelerate Your RWE Research?

Biomedical research relies on a wide range of data sources to provide insights into healthcare outcomes and treatment effectiveness in real-world settings. Finnish medical registers and biobanks hold vast amounts of valuable data that can be effectively combined on an individual level. In addition, the geographical isolation of Finns has resulted in a shared unique genetic heritage, creating excellent conditions for genetic research.

What sets Finland apart from other countries from a biomedical research perspective? While many nations have biobanks and various healthcare registries, Finland also has a long history of using unique national ID codes for every citizen, making all data sources easily and reliably linkable.

In addition, the Finnish population has historically been isolated, which has led to the enrichment of specific gene variants – and thus created exciting possibilities for the research of genetic mechanisms behind disease or treatment outcomes. All this, combined with up-to-date legislation that facilitates the secondary use of medical and health data, has generated perfect conditions for advancing RWE research.

A wealth of data in national registers

Finland has an exceptionally long history of collecting and managing nationwide health and social data. Data and samples are available of virtually the entire Finnish population, approximately 5.5 million citizens. Today, all national registers are digitized, which has improved the accessibility of register data for biomedical research.

Since the entire population is covered with longitudinal electronic health records and personal ID codes, genetic data from biobank samples can be linked to deep phenotypic data, such as medical records.

Find out how the Finnish ID code system helps you to easily combine data for your RWE research

Thanks to the Finnish Act on Secondary Use of Health and Social Data, health care and social welfare data registers, such as the register for health care, the drug reimbursement register, the social benefits register, and the cause of death register, can be efficiently utilized in RWE research.

Registers like this hold rich and varied population-level data of Finnish citizens that can also be combined with other register data without compromising the privacy of individuals.

Read more about Finland's globally unique legislation that accelerates secondary use of health data in biomedical research

The FinnGen study: understanding the Finnish genome

Finnish operators in the field of biomedicine understand that national biobank and medical register data

hold immense possibilities for biomedical research. They also know Finland offers excellent opportunities for public and private researchers and their collaboration.

An excellent example is the FinnGen study that brings together Finnish universities, hospitals, biobanks, and pharmaceutical companies. Since the beginning of the study, the genome and health data of 520,000 Finnish biobank participants have already been analyzed.

The FinnGen study demonstrates the broad usability of Finnish data, as it combines genome information with digital healthcare data from national registries. As a bonus, the study shows the favorable attitude of Finns towards medical research and the national-level commitment to advancing international biomedical research in Finland.

Discover the unique benefits that Finland can offer for biomedical researchers and companies

Find a partner that knows the Finnish data spectrum

RWE projects involve close collaboration between data register controllers, clinical experts, regulatory authorities, and service providers. Accelerate your RWE research with the help of a Finnish research partner who knows what local data can be found in national registers and understands the required permit application processes.

The Fingenious^® Ecosystem partners have extensive experience using unique Finnish data and specimens in RWE research. Choose a Finnish RWE research partner and achieve measurable, cost-effective, and scalable outcomes in your projects.