OuluHealth Ecosys­tem Day, Oulu

Join us for an inspir­ing get-togeth­er at OuluHealth Ecosys­tem Day 2025 at the Oulu City Hall, where we’ll explore the future of health­care.

When: Wednes­day, 5 Novem­ber 2025
Where: Oulu City Hall
Theme: Explor­ing tomorrow’s health­care

Reg­is­tra­tion

Dis­cov­er how dig­i­tal health, next-gen wire­less tech­nolo­gies, and smart hos­pi­tal solu­tions are trans­form­ing future health­care deliv­ery. This year is extra spe­cial as it marks the 10th anniver­sary of OuluHealth Labs — a decade of inno­va­tion and col­lab­o­ra­tion in real-world health and well­be­ing test­ing envi­ron­ments.

The keynote will be deliv­ered by our spe­cial guest, Tom Braekeleirs, who will explore how tech­nol­o­gy is shap­ing our future and how the increas­ing pace of inno­va­tion is chal­leng­ing orga­ni­za­tions. He will focus on the chang­ing con­text of health, emerg­ing tech­nolo­gies, and the mind­set need­ed to pre­pare for the day after tomor­row. You will gain insights into what is hap­pen­ing in soci­ety and tech­nol­o­gy, and what you can, might, or should do about it.

What to expect?

• For­ward-look­ing dis­cus­sions on emerg­ing tech­nolo­gies
• Oppor­tu­ni­ties to con­nect with indus­try lead­ers and inno­va­tors
• A cel­e­bra­tion of a decade of col­lab­o­ra­tion and progress

Agen­da

Morn­ing ses­sion: For­ward-look­ing pre­sen­ta­tions on future health inno­va­tions and mind­sets

08:15    Morn­ing cof­fee, net­work­ing

09:00    Open­ing remarks by Ari Alatossa­va, May­or of Oulu City 

09:10    Key Note: The Inno­va­tion Mind­set, Tom Braekeleirs, NEXXTT.HEALTH​

09:40    Break and net­work­ing

10:10    Advanc­ing Health­care through Research, Devel­op­ment and Inno­va­tion, Tei­ja Keko­nen, Oulu Uni­ver­si­ty Hos­pi­tal

10:30    Re-imag­ing med­i­cine –a tech­nol­o­gy trans­for­ma­tion, Miika Nieminen​, Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu

10:50    Healthy aging with nov­el mul­ti-modal sens­ing, Kari Rönkä, VTT​

11:10    Con­nect­ing the Dots — Glob­al­ly with Oulu Ecosys­tem, Andy Blead­en, Glob­al Health Con­nec­tor

Net­work­ing lunch 11:30–13:00   

After­noon ses­sion: OuluHealth Labs’ 10-year anniver­sary — a cel­e­bra­tion of a decade of col­lab­o­ra­tion and progress.

13:00 A Decade of OuluHealth Labs – From Vision to Real­i­ty and Beyond, Timo Alalääkkölä, Pohde 

13:30 Emerg­ing test­beds at OuluHealth: RoboSote­Labs, Mit­t­lab and Sim­lab Vir­tu­al Corner​

13:45 A pan­el dis­cus­sion: Test­ed and Proven: Com­pa­ny Expe­ri­ences from OuluHealth Labs, host­ed by Antti Uku­ra, Pohde

• Timo Koskela, Cere­nion

• Mikko Savola, Monidor

• Han­na Viisa­nen-Kuopi­la, Anke­rias

14:15 Net­work­ing & stands 

14:45 Smart hos­pi­tal patient care and sup­port func­tions with pri­vate 5G and edge com­put­ing, Tomi Lahti, Nokia

15:10 The Pow­er of Pri­vate 5G SA – Oppor­tu­ni­ties in Oulu, Jani Katisko, Pohde

15:20 Trans­form­ing Health­care with Wire­less Wear­ables – Prac­ti­cal Use Cas­es, Rauno Joke­lainen, WICOAR

15:30 From Net­work Per­for­mance to Edge Com­put­ing – The Future of Smart Hos­pi­tals, Ijaz Ahmad, Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu

15:40 Wrap-up and key take­aways

SPEAK­ERS

About Tom Braekeleirs, NEXXTT.HEALTH

Tom Braekeleirs is an inno­va­tion leader in dig­i­tal health. He is cur­rent­ly Vis­it­ing Pro­fes­sor Dig­i­tal Med­ical Tech­nol­o­gy at Ghent Uni­ver­si­ty, speak­er and mod­er­a­tor at Nexxworks and found­ed NEXXTT.HEALTH. Before this he was CEO of Blue­Health Inno­va­tion Cen­ter, a not-for-prof­it that sup­port­ed dig­i­tal­iza­tion in health­care through the coach­ing of health-tech star­tups. He also has a vast expe­ri­ence work­ing for BigTech com­pa­nies. He is an advi­sor, pod­cast­er, speak­er, lec­tur­er and colum­nist on top­ics such as the future of health, dig­i­tal tech­nol­o­gy and inno­va­tion.

Andy Blead­en, Glob­al Health Con­nec­tor

Andy Blead­en he has built at the Glob­al Health Conec­tor  a vast net­work of 90+ Glob­al Dig­i­tal Health Ecosys­tems, 12 the­mat­ic inno­va­tion ecosys­tems, and a thriv­ing Mem­ber­ship Com­mu­ni­ty of over 1200 health orga­ni­za­tions. His work focus­es on con­nect­ing, con­ven­ing, ampli­fy­ing, and accel­er­at­ing innovation—with a strong empha­sis on adop­tion. He has 35+ years of expe­ri­ence span­ning health, social care, and fund­ing,

 Since 2013, Andy has served as an Exter­nal Expert for the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion, assess­ing pro­pos­als and review­ing projects for FP and Hori­zon Pro­grammes. He has also con­tributed to the Euro­pean Insti­tute of Inno­va­tion & Tech­nol­o­gy (EIT), eval­u­at­ing pro­grammes in Health and Man­u­fac­tur­ing, along­side oth­er ini­tia­tives such as Urban Inno­va­tion Actions, COST Actions, Urbact, the Inno­v­a­tive Med­i­cines Ini­tia­tive, and the Euro­pean Urban Ini­tia­tive Pro­gramme. A life­long con­nec­tor and strate­gic thinker, Andy spe­cial­izes in secur­ing and man­ag­ing exter­nal fund­ing, pro­cure­ment, inno­va­tion fund­ing, and build­ing large-scale glob­al part­ner­ships. His exper­tise makes him a sought-after leader in dig­i­tal health and inno­va­tion.

Timo Alalääkkölä, Pohde

M.Sc. in Eco­nom­ics, works as Head of Test­ing and Inno­va­tions at the Oulu Uni­ver­si­ty Hos­pi­tal (OYS). He is devel­op­ing pub­lic-pri­vate col­lab­o­ra­tion mod­els for health­care sec­tor and man­ag­ing the OuluHealth Labs inno­va­tion, test­ing and devel­op­ment plat­form. Mr. Alalääkkölä has a long expe­ri­ence in IT relat­ed research, devel­op­ment and inno­va­tion projects since 2004. He start­ed his pro­fes­sion­al career at Nokia where he was respon­si­ble of R&D relat­ed inno­va­tion pro­cure­ment man­age­ment.

Since 2013 Mr. Alalääkkölä has been work­ing in the health and life sci­ence sec­tor. His cur­rent respon­si­bil­i­ties include oper­at­ing the OuluHealth Labs and par­tic­i­pa­tion to var­i­ous devel­op­ment projects at OYS, includ­ing Future Hos­pi­tal 2030 pro­gram. His most recent projects are relat­ed to devel­op­ing and imple­ment­ing AI and pri­vate 5G solu­tions in social and health sec­tor. Mr. Alalääkkölä is cur­rent­ly work­ing towards Ph.D. in Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu Busi­ness School where he is research­ing health inno­va­tion net­works from inter­na­tion­al busi­ness per­spec­tive.

Miika Niem­i­nen, Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu

Miika Niem­i­nen is Pro­fes­sor of Med­ical Physics at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu and Chief Physi­cist at Oulu Uni­ver­si­ty Hos­pi­tal. His research focus­es on the devel­op­ment of new diag­nos­tic imag­ing tech­nolo­gies, includ­ing nov­el mag­net­ic res­o­nance imag­ing and com­put­ed tomog­ra­phy meth­ods. For­mer­ly, he has con­duct­ed research at Har­vard Med­ical School and Uni­ver­si­ty of Kuo­pio. He is the recip­i­ent of the Fel­low­ship Award of the Inter­na­tion­al Soci­ety for Mag­net­ic Res­o­nance in Med­i­cine and the Carl Wegelius Award of the Finnish Radi­o­log­i­cal Soci­ety. He is a research pro­gram leader in the Flag­ship of Advanced Math­e­mat­ics for Sens­ing, Imag­ing and Mod­el­ling, fund­ed by the Research Coun­cil of Fin­land.

Kari Rönkä, VTT

Dr. Kari Rönkä is cur­rent­ly work­ing as Vice Pres­i­dent in Sens­ing Solu­tions ‑research area at VTT Tech­ni­cal Research Cen­tre of Fin­land Ltd, respon­si­ble for research top­ics such as human mul­ti-modal sens­ing, wear­able elec­tron­ics, in vit­ro diag­nos­tics, health AI, pho­ton­ics sens­ing and inte­gra­tion as well as flex­i­ble elec­tron­ics inte­gra­tion. He has a strong and ver­sa­tile expe­ri­ence in var­i­ous man­age­r­i­al posi­tions both in indus­try and research. He is also active in com­mer­cial­i­sa­tion and indus­tri­al­i­sa­tion of nov­el tech­nolo­gies as a Chair­man of the Print­o­Cent board for print­ed intel­li­gence and Med­Phab non-prof­it asso­ci­a­tion (Med­Phab ry) for pho­ton­ic-based med­ical device pilot­ing.

Tei­ja Keko­nen, Oulu Uni­ver­si­ty Hos­pi­tal

Dr. Tei­ja Keko­nen is Direc­tor of Research, Devel­op­ment and Inno­va­tion at the Well­be­ing Ser­vices Coun­ty of North Ostro­both­nia (Pohde). In addi­tion to research, devel­op­ment and inno­va­tion admin­is­tra­tion, her area of respon­si­bil­i­ty also includes coor­di­na­tion of stu­dents’ train­ing in Pohde. Tei­ja has exten­sive expe­ri­ence in research admin­is­tra­tion at the Uni­ver­si­ties of Turku and Oulu, as well as sev­er­al years of expe­ri­ence work­ing for indus­try, SMEs and start-up com­pa­ny.

Tomi Lahti, Nokia

Indus­tri­al App­sTo­mi is expe­ri­enced indus­tri­al dig­i­tal­iza­tion pro­fes­sion­al for whom fight­ing for safer, more pur­pose­ful future with AI- and autonomous-first solu­tions for cus­tomers is the pur­pose – AI is the tool every hos­pi­tal needs, and it starts with lib­er­at­ing oper­a­tional data with edge data foun­da­tions.

Tomi has worked with soft­ware solu­tions his entire career, cur­rent­ly with MXIE 3rd par­ty indus­tri­al app ecosys­tem and before that, with Indus­tri­al OT data solu­tions like data his­to­ri­an, ana­lyt­ics, and AI solu­tions.

Ijaz Ahmad, Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu

MSc. in Infor­ma­tion Secu­ri­ty, Ijaz is a Doc­tor­al Researcher at the Cen­tre for Wire­less Com­mu­ni­ca­tions – Net­works & Sys­tems, Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu. Super­vised of Prof. Erk­ki Har­ju­la and spon­sored by Finnish Cen­tre for Arti­fi­cial Intel­li­gence’s AI-Doc pilot doc­tor­al pro­gram, his work focus­es on adap­tive secu­ri­ty, edge intel­li­gence, and secure archi­tec­tures for future 6G-enabled health­care and oth­er crit­i­cal sys­tems. With more than a decade of aca­d­e­m­ic expe­ri­ence in infor­ma­tion secu­ri­ty, Ijaz is a Cer­ti­fied Eth­i­cal Hack­er (C|EH) and a Senior Fel­low of the High­er Edu­ca­tion Acad­e­my (SFHEA) from Advance­HE, UK. He has con­tributed to the HOLA 5G project and con­tin­ues to explore how edge com­put­ing and net­work per­for­mance inno­va­tions can shape the next gen­er­a­tion of smart hos­pi­tals and dig­i­tal health ecosys­tems.

Jani Katisko, Pohde

Jani Katisko is an Adjunct Pro­fes­sor, Med­ical Physi­cist, and entre­pre­neur based in Oulu Uni­ver­si­ty Hos­pi­tal, Fin­land. With a strong back­ground in neu­roimag­ing, brain stim­u­la­tion, and move­ment dis­or­ders, he has pub­lished near­ly 40 sci­en­tif­ic papers, accu­mu­lat­ing over 760 cita­tions. As the Group Leader of the Oulu Research Group of Advanced Sur­gi­cal Tech­nolo­gies and Physics, he is at the fore­front of cut­ting-edge med­ical advance­ments.

Beyond his con­tri­bu­tions to the med­ical field, Jani is also deeply involved in the devel­op­ment of pri­vate wire­less net­works, bring­ing inno­v­a­tive con­nec­tiv­i­ty solu­tions to crit­i­cal sec­tors. His exper­tise bridges the gap between advanced med­ical tech­nol­o­gy and next-gen­er­a­tion telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions, mak­ing him a key play­er in both indus­tries.

Rauno Joke­lainen, WICOAR Tech­nolo­gies Oy

Rauno Joke­lainen is the Founder and COO of WICOAR Tech­nolo­gies, devel­op­ing wire­less and wear­able solu­tions that are trans­form­ing health­care work­flows. Before found­ing WICOAR, he workes 29 years at Nokia Net­works, where he held sev­er­al lead­er­ship roles includ­ing Vice Pres­i­dent respon­si­ble for glob­al BTS plat­form devel­op­ment. His deep exper­tise in telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions, con­nec­tiv­i­ty, and sys­tem archi­tec­ture now dri­ves the cre­ation of next-gen­er­a­tion 5G-enabled tools for hos­pi­tals. At OuluHealth Ecosys­tem Day, Rauno will present “Trans­form­ing Health­care with Wire­less Wear­ables – Prac­ti­cal Use Cas­es,” demon­strat­ing how real-world deploy­ments are improv­ing effi­cien­cy, safe­ty, and staff moti­va­tion in health­care.

Let’s con­nect, cel­e­brate, and co-cre­ate the next chap­ter in future health and life sci­ence. We look for­ward to wel­com­ing you.

Con­tact:
Min­na Komu
OuluHealth Net­work Direc­tor
minna.komu@businessoulu.com