Recommendations and Criteria

The Council for Choices in Health Care in Finland (COHERE Finland) may recommend that a specific healthcare examination, treatment or rehabilitation method either be included or not included in the healthcare service choices. A positive recommendation may include conditions related to the severity of the illness, previous treatments or pricing, for example.

The recommendations are based on the best available research data, the transparency of principles and practices used, and the opportunity to comment on the content of the recommendations. COHERE ensures that the service choices take into account the different patient groups fairly and equally, as well as budget constraints and legislation. The recommendations take into account ethical aspects and considerations related to the organisation of health care. The healthcare provider makes a decision on the implementation of the recommendation.

The provisions do not limit who may propose topics for the recommendations. 

The proposed topics received will be presented at COHERE’s meeting where it will decide whether to begin preparing a recommendation or not.  If the Council decides to continue preparations, the unit and the secretariat will begin to draw up a draft recommendation. The recommendation will first be published as a draft for public consultation. The comments will be reviewed and the draft recommendation will be amended accordingly. COHERE will subsequently decide on the final adoption of the recommendation. The recommendation, its summary and other material related to it will be published in Finnish on the website. The summary will be published in Swedish and English too. The recommendations will be updated as necessary.

In addition to the recommendations, COHERE’s task is to draw up criteria for access to examinations. The criteria will be applied to examinations performed for the early detection of a disease in asymptomatic individuals. The criteria apply to examinations involving medical exposure from ionizing radiation, such as X-ray examinations.