Ostrobothnia Digital Clinic Experiment

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

170306 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2025-04-15

Study Completion Date

2026-01-14

Brief Summary

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This randomized controlled trial (RCT) examines the impacts of a publicly provided digital clinic that offers digital primary care services to consumers. This intervention grants access to a public digital clinic that provides chat-based primary care consultations via a mobile phone application and website, including care needs assessment, diagnoses, follow-up care recommendations, and prescriptions. The digital clinic supplements traditional public primary care services, including in-person visits and phone consultations. The trial takes place in Ostrobothnia, Finland, a healthcare district serving a population of 178,000 residents. The investigators will randomize access to the digital clinic at the household level, providing access to 50% of the households. By doing so, the investigators aim to evaluate whether digital services can substitute for, complement, or increase the utilization of traditional primary care, particularly in-person visits or calls to traditional clinics. At the end of the nine-month trial, access to the digital clinic will be expanded to the entire population.

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Detailed Description

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Conditions

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Primary Care Provider

Study Design

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Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

Cluster-randomized controlled trials, households as clusters

Primary Study Purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Blinding Strategy

NONE

Study Groups

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Access to a digital clinic

Access to a digital clinic, which offers assessments, diagnoses, follow-up care recommendations, and prescriptions

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Access to a digital clinic

Intervention Type OTHER

This intervention grants access to a digital clinic that provides chat-based primary care consultations via phone application and website.

No access to a digital clinic (treatment as usual)

Health care as usual without access rights to a digital clinic

Group Type NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

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Access to a digital clinic

This intervention grants access to a digital clinic that provides chat-based primary care consultations via phone application and website.

Intervention Type OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

* All residents alive and residing in the region of Ostrobothnia (Finland) on March 14, 2015, AND permanent address observed in the Finnish Population Information System

Exclusion Criteria

* Resides in the city of Kristiinankaupunki OR resides in a household defined as institutionalized care

* If an individual from the target population, extracted from the Population Information System, is not observed in Statistics Finland datasets, which is defined as not having a municipality of residence (missing data) at the end of 2024, the investigators will not use that individual in the study population in the analyses because the data do not include have covariates for the individual.
* Age 71 and above

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes