Foresight

Foresight helps us to guide our RDI activities and to develop solutions for future needs.

• Foresight is a systematic approach through which we identify factors that influence the future and explore alternative future scenarios.
• Through foresight, we can define actions and develop ways of working that help us move towards a desirable future. Foresight is not about predicting the future but about preparing for different possibilities.

Foresight is not the same as forecasting. Forecasting refers to methods that aim to estimate likely future events or developments based on current trends, historical data, and statistical models.

At THL, we have broad and systematic foresight expertise that supports the leadership, evaluation and strategic decision-making of social and health services.

Examples of foresight work and tools

Finnish Health Foresight

The Finnish Health Foresight is an online service designed for decision-makers and leaders in wellbeing services counties. It helps anticipate future service needs arising from ageing, morbidity, lifestyle factors and specific risk factors.

The service provides projections and alternative scenarios for the development of service needs across wellbeing services counties and at the national level up to 2040.

The Finnish Health Foresight service

Service Need Foresight Tool for wellbeing services counties

THL’s Service Need Foresight Tool provides wellbeing services counties to access nationally comparable information on the development of service needs and costs. The purpose is to support long-term strategic planning and needs-based allocation of resources.

The tool uses a population-structure-based projection model, produces region-specific estimates by service category, and enables scenario building to support strategic decision-making.