Lääkärin käsikirja, a collection of over 1 000 point-of-care guidelines and the cornerstone of Finland’s leading professional health portal, the Terveysportti, has become familiar to Finnish doctors during its 35-year existence. Less well known is its international use – the main part of the handbook has been translated into ten languages and is used in 14 countries. In early May, our international partners gathered in Tallinn, Estonia, to share their experiences and best practices on how to apply the content to local circumstances and how to successfully sell and distribute it across different cultures. International dialogue and feedback are also contributing to the development of Lääkärin käsikirja in Finland, where we are at the forefront of implementing evidence-based care.
Lääkärin käsikirja has been available in many forms over the years as it has been published as a printed book, on floppy disks to be installed on one’s own computer’s hard drive, on CD-ROMs and, with the expansion of Duodecim Publishing Company Ltd’s digital publication since 2001, as part of the Terveysportti health portal online. The core part of Lääkärin käsikirja was translated into English at the turn of the millennium and named Evidence-Based Medical Guidelines (EBMG). The English-language version has been translated into 10 languages and implemented in 14 countries where the care guidelines of the work have been adapted to the practices and recommendations of each country.
We currently have editorial staff operating locally in five countries. A group of editorial representatives and EBMG retailers gathered at the EBMG Partners’ Forum in Tallinn, which was a great place to meet as there was cooperation in Estonia long before the English translation was finished. The work called Yleislääkärin käsikirja (“handbook for general practitioners”) was published in Estonian as early as in 1995 (Üldarsti käsiraamat, Medicina 1995). Estonia is also currently our active partner as, in addition to EBMG, the country also has Duodecim Clinical Decision Support EBMEDS. The Estonian Health Insurance Fund has acquired the programme for use by the family doctors in the country. The project received widespread attention when it was named the country’s best public digital service in 2021 in a competition organised by the Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications.
The Partners’ Forum shared experiences from different language regions and countries in applying EBMG to local circumstances. Various distribution solutions were also explored, ranging from large national portals to private commercial platforms. The development of translation and localisation processes as well as user feedback were discussed. Best practices from sales and marketing were explored and success stories were shared. There is particular interest in monitoring the expansion of the use of artificial intelligence to medicine and medical publishing.
This and previous Forums (Helsinki 2018 and Vienna 2019) have formed a community of our international partners where knowledge and experiences are gladly shared. International activities also benefit the work of the editorial team of Lääkärin käsikirja in maintaining the content of Terveysportti, as we regularly receive feedback and suggestions for improvement from foreign editorial staff. Despite the varying care cultures in different countries, some of the feedback has helped to update the original Finnish versions.
In Finland and at Duodecim, we can see that we are at the forefront of implementing evidence-based care. Duodecim Publishing Company Ltd, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, is proud to continue this work in cooperation with the leading experts in our country and abroad.
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