# Finnish Base Profiles and Kanta: FHIR is not the main Kanta standard > Finnish Base Profiles 2.0.0 are the HL7 Finland baseline. Kanta is still mostly HL7 v3; FHIR use is limited (PHR, prescriptions, social welfare). PIC/HETU uses urn:oid:1.2.246.21. Author: Ala Ben Aicha Canonical page: https://alabenaicha.me/insights/fhir-fi-base-kanta Updated: 2026-09-19 ## Direct answer Finnish Base Profiles 2.0.0 constrain Patient and identifiers. Kanta remains largely HL7 v3; FHIR is limited (PHR, prescriptions, social welfare). PIC/HETU uses urn:oid:1.2.246.21. ## FI Base is a baseline, Kanta is a platform HL7 Finland’s Finnish Base Profiles are the national **baseline** IG: they tell you how to put a Finnish personal identity code on Patient and how Finnish organisations, encounters and Kanta-related metadata look in FHIR. They are not “the Kanta API”. Kanta (Kela) is the national archive of health and social-welfare information. The FI Base home page is explicit: **most Kanta data and APIs are HL7 v3**, with FHIR opening in named services. Simplifier’s Finland jurisdiction summary likewise describes FHIR as used in a **limited** set of use cases, not as the dominant national standard. Do not bid “Kanta on FHIR” unless the cited Kanta specification is a FHIR IG. | Layer | Owner / home | Canonical / package | What it is | What it is not | | --------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Finnish Base Profiles** 2.0.0 (STU 2, 5 Oct 2025) | HL7 Finland; [hl7.fi/fhir/finnish-base-profiles](https://hl7.fi/fhir/finnish-base-profiles/) | Official URL `https://hl7.fi/fhir/finnish-base-profiles/ImplementationGuide/hl7.fhir.fi.base`; package `hl7.fhir.fi.base#2.0.0`; HL7 Finland oid `1.2.246.777.11.2025.4` | National **baseline** for Patient, Practitioner, Organization, Encounter and Finnish identifiers / security labels | Not a Kanta conformance target, not a Must-Support-heavy “core” in the US Core sense (this version defines no Must-Support rules) | | **Kanta** national services | Kela; [kanta.fi](https://www.kanta.fi/) | Production archive still **HL7 v3** for most documents and APIs | National registry / services for health and social welfare | Not “the Finnish FHIR server” | | **Kanta FHIR slices** | Kela + HL7 Finland PH SIG | [Kanta PHR](https://www.kanta.fi/en/system-developers/specifications-of-the-personal-health-record) (R4 after STU3 sunset); [Prescription R4](https://simplifier.net/PrescriptionR4); [sosiaalihuolto R4](https://simplifier.net/Kanta-sosiaalihuolto-R4) | Named FHIR APIs: citizen PHR, prescriptions, social welfare | Not the whole of Kanta, not FI Base itself | | **THL / Kela as owners** | THL (code systems, national architecture), Kela (Kanta operations) | Referenced from FI Base (Koodistopalvelin, palvelutapahtuma, rekisterinpitäjä) | Standards and service owners | Not a third FHIR package you install instead of FI Base | Primary sources: [FI Base 2.0.0](https://hl7.fi/fhir/finnish-base-profiles/), [Kanta PHR specifications](https://www.kanta.fi/en/system-developers/specifications-of-the-personal-health-record). ## The identifier: PIC / HETU Country-specific identifier for Finnish Patient is the official Personal Identifier Code (PIC, Finnish *henkilötunnus* / HETU), granted by the Digital and Population Data Services Agency. FI Base Patient slice `identifier:PIC` patterns: `urn:oid:1.2.246.21` `use` official, type `NNFIN`. Human-readable form is 11 characters; the FHIR `system` is the OID URN. Temporary identifiers use other OIDs (organisation-scoped); they are not PIC. Do not publish a real HETU. Keep the system URL and a dummy value in fixtures. FI Base examples such as `010190-999Y` are specification examples, not a person. Turvakielto (non-disclosure of contact details) is a Finnish Patient concern profiled in FI Base. It is not an identifier, but it will break naive address mapping if you ignore it. ## What to implement first 1. If the buyer needs a **Finnish Patient** for any FHIR API: FI Base 2.0.0, PIC system as above, package `hl7.fhir.fi.base#2.0.0`. 2. If the buyer is a **Kanta archive / document** integration: start from the **v3** Kanta specifications unless the contract names PHR, Prescription R4 or sosiaalihuolto R4. 3. If the buyer is a **wellbeing / PHR app**: Kanta PHR R4 profiles, not FI Base alone, and not STU3 (parallel STU3/R4 support was scheduled to end). 4. For EHDS category 1, FI Base + national identifier still sit under [EU Core](https://alabenaicha.me/insights/fhir-eu-core-ehds-implementation). EU Core does not replace HETU. ## What this is not This article is not Kanta certification, not a Kela connection agreement, not THL terminology licensing, and not legal advice. Implementing FI Base profiles does not grant Kanta access. I do not operate Kanta test environments. Nothing here is clinical advice. ## Related reading * [FHIR implementation guides by country](https://alabenaicha.me/insights/fhir-implementation-guides-by-country) * [EU Core and EHDS](https://alabenaicha.me/insights/fhir-eu-core-ehds-implementation) * [HL7 FHIR R4 integration](https://alabenaicha.me/insights/hl7-fhir-integration-guide) For mapping work against FI Base or a named Kanta FHIR IG, use [HL7 FHIR integration](https://alabenaicha.me/services/hl7-fhir-integration) or [start a project](https://alabenaicha.me/contact?intent=project).