The current website was designed in 2008 and is now rather outdated and limited due to its age. The new Health Portal (Terviseportaal) cost €1.1 million to develop and will be accessible by both computers and mobile phones for the first time.

The new online service will allow users to find the information they need more quickly, said Evgeni Nikolaevski, the Health Fund's product manager. For example, after logging in, prescriptions will be on the home page.

"You don't necessarily have to go to a service, you can see it in advance," Nikolaevski said.

Medical language has also been simplified.

"All this jargon has become simpler, you don't need to know what an epicrisis is. A lot of this work has been done. What we can't influence is the doctor's response – we can't translate that into human language – but if people are going to go out and find out more about their health, surely doctors are going to have to write a bit more humanly," Nikolaevski said.

The portal was tested in the spring when it was possible to view prescriptions, medical bills, referrals, and vaccination data online.

Kady Adamson, Health Portal project manager at the Health and Welfare Information Systems Centre (TEHIK), said: "The first thing they asked for was a role reversal – we couldn't immediately go to the Health Portal and look at our children's bills. This will now be added as we get everything ready. Then I was asked, where are the examination results and where are the results of the blood tests, where can I see them? They weren't there in May, but they will be there in November."

From the start of 2024, the portal will also send reminders about doctor's appointments and expiring prescriptions.

Additional updates and services will be added in the future. "It is also important that we are technically able to make Terviseportaal in such a way that it will be possible to attach various information technology solutions to it in the future," said Adamson.

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