Oulu Leads Europe with First Pri­vate 5G Net­work in a Func­tion­ing Hos­pi­tal

Pic­ture this: at a hos­pi­tal, doc­tors and nurs­es use smart glass­es to con­sult patient data in real time. Remote mon­i­tor­ing tools track vital signs with­out tying patients to machines. AI-pow­ered diag­nos­tics help clin­i­cians make faster, more pre­cise deci­sions.

Although it may sound like a descrip­tion of a futur­is­tic sci­ence fic­tion, these are no longer exper­i­ments or con­cepts: this is health­care in action, pow­ered by Europe’s first pri­vate 5G net­work deployed in a ful­ly func­tion­ing hos­pi­tal – and it is hap­pen­ing in Oulu, Fin­land.

But this break­through didn’t hap­pen overnight. It is the result of a long-term col­lab­o­ra­tion of dif­fer­ent part­ners from dif­fer­ent sec­tors com­ing togeth­er and work­ing con­sis­tent­ly for years on devel­op­ing inno­va­tion in health­care. This includes the Hola 5G Oulu project, a col­lab­o­ra­tion between Oulu Uni­ver­si­ty Hos­pi­tal (OYS), the North­ern Ostro­both­nia Well­be­ing Coun­ty (Pohde), the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu, Bol­dyn Net­works, and WICOAR Tech­nolo­gies. Fund­ed by the Euro­pean Union, the project is build­ing a dig­i­tal infra­struc­ture designed specif­i­cal­ly for the chal­lenges of hos­pi­tal work.

Hos­pi­tals demand speed, pre­ci­sion, and seam­less com­mu­ni­ca­tion, and the pri­vate 5G Stand­alone net­work pow­er­ing OYS deliv­ers exact­ly that. It pro­vides secure, wire­less, and instant access to patient data, allow­ing clin­i­cians to col­lab­o­rate effort­less­ly across wards and depart­ments. For front­line staff, this means less time wrestling with sys­tems and more time focused on patient care.

The tech­nol­o­gy enabled by this net­work is impres­sive. Smart glass­es allow hands-free access to crit­i­cal infor­ma­tion dur­ing pro­ce­dures. Remote mon­i­tor­ing tools keep con­tin­u­ous tabs on patients with­out restrict­ing move­ment. AI diag­nos­tics ana­lyze data in real time, sup­port­ing quick­er and more informed deci­sion-mak­ing. At OYS, these are not futur­is­tic promis­es, but active tools enhanc­ing dai­ly care.

On May 21st, the Hola 5G Oulu project took cen­ter stage at the Hola 5G Oulu – Smart Wire­less Hos­pi­tal event. Held at the Oulu City Hall, the gath­er­ing brought togeth­er health­care pro­fes­sion­als, engi­neers, researchers, and pub­lic lead­ers to see these inno­va­tions in action and dis­cuss their impact.

Live demon­stra­tions gave a close-up look at HealthAu­dio and HealthVi­sion, two appli­ca­tions that use the 5G net­work to deliv­er real-time audio and visu­al patient data direct­ly into the clin­i­cal deci­sion-mak­ing process. The after­noon also fea­tured expert talks, offer­ing a clear look at how the future of hos­pi­tal work is already tak­ing shape in Oulu.

Jani Katisko, med­ical physi­cist and docent at OYS and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu, opened the day by out­lin­ing the project’s goals: to deliv­er mean­ing­ful improve­ments for front­line staff and build dig­i­tal tools that work seam­less­ly with­in clin­i­cal rou­tines.

Rauno Joke­lainen, co-founder of WICOAR Tech­nolo­gies, show­cased wear­able solu­tions that help staff gath­er and act on patient data more effi­cient­ly. Petri Parvi­ainen from Bol­dyn Net­works gave insight into how 5G net­works are engi­neered for hos­pi­tal use, empha­siz­ing reli­a­bil­i­ty, data secu­ri­ty, and per­for­mance in demand­ing con­di­tions. And Timo Alalääkkölä, Head of Test­ing and Inno­va­tion Activ­i­ties at OYS, spoke about how the 5G net­work is dri­ving pub­lic-pri­vate inno­va­tion and strength­en­ing Oulu’s lead­er­ship in dig­i­tal health­care.

Oulu is a nat­ur­al home for this kind of inno­va­tion. With decades of expe­ri­ence in wire­less tech­nol­o­gy devel­op­ment, a deep pool of engi­neer­ing and research tal­ent, and a cul­ture of pub­lic-pri­vate col­lab­o­ra­tion, the city offers the ide­al con­di­tions for test­ing and scal­ing next-gen­er­a­tion health­care solu­tions. Oulu has long been known as a tech pio­neer, and now, it applies that exper­tise to health­care in ways that are set to ele­vate the glob­al stan­dard.

The Hola 5G project is a vital piece of OYS2030, the long-term trans­for­ma­tion aim­ing to make Oulu Uni­ver­si­ty Hos­pi­tal the world’s smartest hos­pi­tal. It is a future built on mod­ern infra­struc­ture, inte­grat­ed dig­i­tal tools, and a com­mit­ment to usabil­i­ty in real clin­i­cal set­tings. In Oulu, those solu­tions are no longer the­o­ret­i­cal: they are here, reshap­ing how care is deliv­ered every sin­gle day.

Text: Beat­riz Rocha, Health & Life Sci­ence, Busi­nes­sOulu
Image: Busi­nes­sOulu