This randomized controlled trial (RCT) examines the impacts of a publicly provided digital clinic that offers digital primary care services to consumers. This intervention grants access to a public digital clinic that provides chat-based primary care consultations via a mobile phone application and website, including care needs assessment, diagnoses, follow-up care recommendations, and prescriptions. The digital clinic supplements traditional public primary care services, including in-person visits and phone consultations. The trial takes place in Ostrobothnia, Finland, a healthcare district serving a population of 178,000 residents. The investigators will randomize access to the digital clinic at the household level, providing access to 50% of the households. By doing so, the investigators aim to evaluate whether digital services can substitute for, complement, or increase the utilization of traditional primary care, particularly in-person visits or calls to traditional clinics. At the end of the nine-month trial, access to the digital clinic will be expanded to the entire population.

Inclusion Criteria for the intervention:

• All residents alive and residing in the region of Ostrobothnia (Finland) on March 14, 2015, AND permanent address observed in the Finnish Population Information System

Exclusion Criteria for the intervention:

• Resides in the city of Kristiinankaupunki OR resides in a household defined as institutionalized care

Exclusion Criteria for the analysis sample:

• The inclusion and exclusion criteria mentioned above AND:
• If an individual from the target population, extracted from the Population Information System, is not observed in Statistics Finland datasets, which is defined as not having a municipality of residence (missing data) at the end of 2024, the investigators will not use that individual in the study population in the analyses because the data do not include have covariates for the individual.
• Age 71 and above

The dataset containing individual-level health data and demographic data is regulated under the Act on the Secondary Use of Health and Social Data (552/2019) and cannot be made readily available for the purpose of direct replication. However, access to the data can be obtained by sending requests to the Finnish Social and Health Data Permit Authority, Findata, and to Statistics Finland. The investigators commit to publishing all statistical code and other details of the computations that are sufficient to permit the validation of empirical work. The investigators commit to storing the treatment assignment code and data for future use, allowing interested researchers to construct the full dataset required for further research utilizing the original treatment assignment.