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NCT Number: NCT06904469

Ostrobothnia Digital Clinic Experiment

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.

Active, Not Recruiting

This study is active but is not currently recruiting participants.

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Key information

Conditions

Primary Care Provider

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

Wellbeing Services County of Ostrobothnia

Vaasa, Finland

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: Yes

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

for the intervention:

  • 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

for the intervention:

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

Exclusion criteria

for the analysis sample:

  • The inclusion and exclusion criteria mentioned above AND:
  • 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

Treatment and study plan

Access to a digital clinic

Other

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

Primary outcomes

  1. The number of in-person visits in public primary care (Y1.1)

    Time frame: From the digital clinic launch to the end of treatment at 9 months

    This outcome includes in-person visits to nurses and physicians in traditional public primary care clinics.

Secondary outcomes

  1. The number of other contacts with traditional public primary care (Y1.2)

    Time frame: From the digital clinic launch to the end of treatment at 9 months

    This outcome includes care needs assessments, remote appointments to nurses and physicians, and professional-to-professional interactions between nurses and physicians in traditional public primary care clinics.

  2. The number of public digital clinic contacts (D.1).

    Time frame: From the digital clinic launch to the end of treatment at 9 months

    This outcome includes care needs assessments, remote appointments to nurses and physicians (via chat and video), and professional-to-professional interactions between nurses and physicians in digital public primary care clinics.

Other outcomes

  1. The total number of public primary care contacts (Y1.3)

    Time frame: From the digital clinic launch to the end of treatment at 9 months

    This outcome includes in-person visits to nurses and physicians, care needs assessments, remote appointments to nurses and physicians, and professional-to-professional interactions between nurses and physicians in digital and traditional public primary care clinics.

  2. Presence or absence of public digital clinic contacts during the follow-up (yes/no) (D.2).

    Time frame: From the digital clinic launch to the end of treatment at 9 months

    This outcome includes care needs assessments, remote appointments to nurses and physicians (via chat and video), and professional-to-professional interactions between nurses and physicians in digital public primary care clinics.

    This outcome is 1 if the person has at least one contact with the public digital clinic during follow-up and 0 if the person has no contact during follow-up.

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare

Other Gov

Collaborators

  • Aalto University
  • University of Turku

Registry information

Important dates

Study start
2025
Primary completion
2026
Study completion
2026
First posted
Apr 1, 2025
Registry last updated
Aug 20, 2025

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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