THE AIM OF THIS REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

In Finland, screening for colorectal cancer is statutory activity. It is carried out on selected age groups. A personal invitation package containing written material and sample collection tube for a stool sample is mailed to all those entitled for screening.

HUS Diagnostic Center and ISLAB provide a colorectal cancer screening service to the wellbeing services counties in their operating areas and are responsible for packing and sending the screening invitations to the selected people in their area as part of the screening service they provide.

The process chart in the attachment describes the different phases of the screening process. The orange square indicates the phases that this request for information is related to.

The aim of this request for information is to determine what kind of materials and operating processes are available for implementing the Invitation phase of the screening process, marked in orange. This part of the process includes:

- receiving the details of the target group (e.g., in .xml format)

- compiling the invitation package

- sending the invitation packages

- sending possible repeat invitation packages on request

- forwarding the sending details e.g. time stamps of the invitation packages to the laboratory information system (LIS system). In practice, it is the Screening service of the My+ laboratory system (Mylab Oy: My+ LIS system).

More specific background information on the process is described in the attachment of this request for information.

HUS GROUP:

The HUS Group (HUS) is a joint county authority for wellbeing services referred to in the Act on Wellbeing Services Counties. HUS is responsible for providing specialized healthcare services for its members and their residents. The HUS Helsinki University Hospital provides medical care for more than 680,000 patients annually. We have nearly 27,000 professionals working for the best of all patients. In addition, the treatment of many rare and severe diseases is nationally centralized to HUS.

HUS is the biggest healthcare provider and the second largest employer in Finland. Our expertise is internationally recognized and accredited. As a university hospital, we continuously develop and evaluate our treatment methods and activities.

HUS is responsible for the most demanding specialized healthcare in Finland, being nationally responsible for the treatment of and research on many rare and severe diseases. The members of the HUS Group are the Wellbeing Services Counties of West Uusimaa, Central Uusimaa, Eastern Uusimaa, and Vantaa and Kerava as well as the City of Helsinki.

HUS Diagnostic Center is the leading provider of clinical laboratory and imaging services in Finland. Our main operating area comprises the specialized healthcare provided by the HUS Group and the primary healthcare provided by the wellbeing services counties in the HUS region. We are also responsible for the laboratory and imaging operations of the wellbeing services counties of Kymenlaakso and South Karelia. HUS Diagnostic Center has activities in eight medical specialties. The Diagnostic Center employs approximately 3,400 specialists of the laboratory and imaging sector in more than 150 healthcare units. HUS Diagnostic Center is a testing laboratory no. T055 accredited by the Finnish Accreditation Service (FINAS).

More information about HUS and its operations can be found at www.hus.fi.

ISLAB:

Joint county authority for ISLAB laboratories provides laboratory services for primary and specialized healthcare in the wellbeing services counties of North Savo, South Savo and North Karelia. ISLAB has approximately 60 service locations and 570 employees. In 2024, ISLAB had more than one million client contacts for sample collection and more than 8 million tests were analyzed. 97% of the samples are analyzed at ISLAB’s laboratories. Central laboratories in Kuopio, Joensuu and Mikkeli provide emergency laboratory services as well as special analytics in clinical chemistry, hematology and clinical microbiology. The clients can have samples collected at any of the units. ISLAB is the testing laboratory no. T072 accredited by the Finnish Accreditation Service (FINAS).

More information about ISLAB and its operations can be found on the website at www.islab.fi.

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Please see the attachment for further information and the questions regarding this request for information.

Response to this request for information should include replies to the above questions. The answers to this request for information are asked to be sent by e-mail to the e-mail address below by latest 31.8.2025 (31st August 2025):