Intro

The RoboSoteLab project promotes the possibilities of using robotics and smart technology and the co-creation operating model that supports the use of robotics in the social and healthcare sector.

The aim is to create capabilities and preconditions for the emergence of new technological solutions and to promote the introduction of new kinds of technology. The project enables companies to apply digital solutions and test the development phase in testing and experimentation environments corresponding to reality in the social and healthcare sector.

The project will design and implement a research, development, and innovation environment that utilizes robotics and related smart technology.

Project duration: 1.1.2024–31.12.2025

Purpose and Goals

Enhancing well-being: the project aims to improve people’s well-being by integrating technology into social and health care.

Cost management: by utilizing robotics and smart tech, the project seeks to curb the growth of social and health expenditures.

Addressing labor shortages: technology adoption becomes crucial given the aging population and labor shortages.

Home-based care: the focus is on supporting home-based care for the elderly, promoting independent living.

Contact Person

Tarja Rautio

Project manager Oulu University of Applied Sciences

Tarja.rautio@oamk.fi

Marjo-Riitta Finnilä
Administrative Project Manager
marjo.finnila@osao.fi

Intro:

The project aims to pilot the first health and life science business incubator in the Oulu region, based on the concept developed in the ‘Regional cooperation in incubator activities’ project (A78109). Lessons and experiences from previous projects will also be utilized in piloting the incubator.

The primary objective is to create new health and life science companies and business operations in North Ostrobothnia, fostering the commercialization of new research innovations and the generation of new jobs. Additionally, the project aims to provide further support for startups in their business development and growth. This will be achieved by utilizing, for example, the demand-driven co-creation model developed in the area.

Furthermore, the project seeks to further develop the incubator model, ensuring its functionality, and to establish an action plan and business model for the incubator’s continuation after the project concludes.

Hankkeen nimi: OYSTER Terveys ja Life Science hautomo

Hankkeen kesto: 01/2024–04/2026

Hankekoodi: J10514

Toteuttajat: BusinessOulu (päätoteuttaja), Oulun yliopisto, OAMK

Hankkeen julkinen tiivistelmä: Hankkeen tavoitteena on pilotoida Oulun alueelle ensimmäinen terveys ja Life science hautomo ”Hautomotoiminnan alueellinen yhteistyö” hankkeessa (A78109) rakennetun konseptin pohjalta. Hautomotoiminnan pilotoinnissa hyödynnetään myös muiden aiempien hankkeiden oppeja ja kokemuksia. Hankkeen tavoitteena on synnyttää Oulun alueelle uusia terveys ja Life science yrityksiä ja yritysliiketoimintaa, jotka edistävät uusien tutkimusinnovaatioiden kaupallistamista ja uusien työpaikkojen syntymistä hyödyntäen mm. alueella kehitettyä tarvelähtöistä yhteiskehittämisen mallia. Hankkeen tavoitteena myös kehittää hautomomallia edelleen varmistaen konseptin toimivuus ja luoda toimintasuunnitelma sekä liiketoimintamalli hautomotoiminnan vakiinnuttamiseksi hankkeen päättymisen jälkeen.

Hankkeen konkreettisena tuloksena rakentuu terveys ja life science hautomo, jolla on selkeä ja toimialan erityistarpeet huomioonottava sisältökokonaisuus hautomotoimintaan osallistuvien tiimien ja yritysten liikeidean kehittämisen tueksi. Kontinkankaan alueelta vuokrataan fyysiset toimitilat terveys ja life science hautomolle. Hankkeen tuloksena syntyy uudenlainen toimintamalli, joka edesauttaa liiketoimintamahdollisuuksien tunnistamista ja rohkaisee sekä aktivoi yrittäjyyden pariin, erityisesti terveys ja life science toimialalla. Hankkeessa rakennetaan uusi toimintamalli terveys ja life science startup yritysten nopeampaan kansainvälistymiseen sekä aikaisempaan kansainvälistymisen aloittamiseen sekä mittaristo, joka mahdollistaa toiminnan systemaattisen kehityksen.

Yhteyshenkilöt

Jenni Konttila
development manager, OuluHealth ecosystem

Minna Komu
network director, OuluHealth ecosystem

European Digital Innovation Hub (EDIH) is a pan-European partnership of over 150 European Digital Innovation Hubs. It focuses on boosting digital investment and, in particular, the digitalisation of SMEs. There are four EDIHs in Finland;  FAIR, ROBOCOAST, Location Innovation Hub, and HealthHub Finland, in which OuluHealth and the University of Oulu are active participants. 

HealthHub Finland is a one-stop-shop for the development of digital solutions for health and wellbeing, and a gateway to Finnish health and wellbeing data. For SMEs and public sector organisations across the European Union, it offers subsidised or free test-before-invest and innovation services, financing advice, training, and skills development. HealthHub Finland is a national non-profit public-private consortium that brings together experts and resources from Finland’s most prominent health ecosystems in the cities of Turku, Oulu, Tampere, Kuopio and Kajaani and the national Finnish Biobanks – FINBB cooperative.

The initiative is co-funded by the European Commission’s Digital Europe Programme and Business Finland, the Finnish government organization for innovation funding and trade, travel, and investment promotion. 

More information: https://healthhubfinland.eu/

The main purpose of this project is to support the implementation of new technology and enable testing during the developmental phase in a real digitalized healthcare environment. The project aims to support companies’ product development and improve SME companies’ readiness for growth and competitiveness nationally and internationally by enabling better opportunities for early-phase testing. The project aims to activate SME companies’ innovation activities and accelerate new business ideas. It consists of three packages, that have their sub-purposes:

1) to develop integration surface into local patient health record system for the testing and development of digitalized solutions and wireless testing environment

2) to develop a testing environment for VR/AR- solutions

3) accelerate the creation of business models to commercialize digitalized healthcare solutions

Hankkeen nimi: DiKi- Digitaalisten terveysratkaisujen kiihdyttäminen

Hankkeen kesto: 08/23-07/25

Hankekoodi: A80346

Toteuttajat: BusinessOulu (päätoteuttaja), OAMK, Pohde

Hankkeen julkinen tiivistelmä:

Terveys- ja hyvinvointitietojen hyödyntäminen terveydenhuollossa on kasvanut tiedolla johtamisen, tutkimuksen sekä tuotekehityksen tukena. Olennaista tiedonsiirrossa on integraatiorajapinta, joka mahdollistaa tietojen välittämisen potilastietojärjestelmästä sovelluksen tai yrityksen palvelun käyttöön. Integraatiorajapinnan testaaminen aidossa terveydenhuollon ympäristössä parantaa yritysten valmiuksia kehittää ja myydä ratkaisuja. Virtuaalitodellisuuden (VR) ja lisätyn todellisuuden (AR) hyödyntäminen tulee kasvamaan terveydenhuollossa esimerkiksi osana kivun hoitoa tai mielenterveystyötä erilaisina altistusterapioina sekä ammattilaisten kouluttamisen tukena. VR/AR-ratkaisujen testaus- ja kokeiluympäristöt ovat tärkeitä ratkaisujen kehittämiseksi ja niiden käyttöönottamiseksi. Lisäksi yrityksiä tulee aktivoida innovaatiotoimintaan ja yhteiskehittämiseen.

Hankkeen päätavoitteena on luoda valmiuksia ja edellytyksiä uusien teknologisten ratkaisujen syntymiselle, tukea uuden teknologian käyttöönottoa ja mahdollistaa yrityksille digitaalisten ratkaisujen kehitysvaiheen testaus sekä kokeilut aidossa digitaalisessa terveydenhuollon käyttöympäristössä. Hankkeen tavoitteena on tukea pk-yritysten tuotekehitystä sekä parantaa näiden yritysten kasvu- ja kilpailuedellytyksiä niin kotimaan markkinoilla kuin kansainvälisesti mahdollistamalla yrityksille entistä paremmat mahdollisuudet digitaalisten ratkaisujen varhaiseen tuotetestaukseen ja kokeiluihin jo tuotekehityksen alkuvaiheessa. Hankkeen tavoitteena on myös aktivoida pk-yritysten innovaatiotoimintaa sekä kiihdyttää uusien liiketoimintakonseptien syntymistä. Hanke muodostuu kolmesta työpaketista, joilla jokaisella on oma alatavoitteensa. Nämä alatavoitteet ovat:

1) digitaalisten ratkaisujen testaamisen ja kehittämisen mahdollistavan integraatioalustan kehittäminen alueellisen potilastietojärjestelmän osalta sekä langattoman testausympäristön kehittäminen

2) VR/AR- ratkaisujen kokeilu- ja testausympäristön kehittäminen

3) uusien liiketoimintakonseptien syntymisen kiihdyttäminen digitaalisten ratkaisujen kaupallistamiseksi.

HYTKI builds service models that enable peer learning to support companies, research institutes, and municipal and city actors in executing secondary use of data and usage of health and wellbeing data in their business, research, and service production.

HYTKI focuses on:

• Identifying and making visible the special expertise of the participating regions
• Data on new product and service innovations, business, and new value as part of proactive healthcare and well-being also in urban development
• Operating models and capabilities of data utilisation and analytical skills

The project partners are the University of Oulu (coordinator), BusinessOulu, Kajaani University of Applied Sciences, CEMIS, KuopioHealth co-op, Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences, and Turku Science Park. The project is funded through The Council of Oulu Region (Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment of Finland’s support for thematic network collaboration), until the end of 2023.

More information on the HYTKI project site and www.hytki.fi

The Smart-RDI environment project is a continuum for OuluHealth ecosystem activities. The project promotes digital transition and the uptake of digital technologies and solutions. The aim is to develop the Smart RDI environment with its operating models and services. The new RDI environment of the OuluHealth ecosystem will promote digitalisation and support the co-development of wireless technologies and virtual solutions, such as VR / AR devices and mobile services. This aim will be achieved with a strategic approach involving partnership between several target groups. The project activities bring together companies, researchers, developers and healthcare providers. The project responds to societal challenges, especially when creating novel digital path solutions for customers, and in developing new wireless, digital and data-led services and businesses.

More information: https://www.oulu.fi/en/projects/smart-rdi-environment-digital-solutions-health-and-well-being

Digital Health (DigiHealth) is part of the 5th profiling theme of the University of Oulu. It aims at international breakthroughs in the development and application of novel digitalised solutions to predict progression of diseases and in offering personalised therapies in a cost-effective and patient-centric way. There are four different research topics in DigiHealth: DigiHealth1 creates novel, integrated next-generation bioinformatics and biosensor data solutions, DigiHealth2 creates system level architecture for health data management and sustainable communication networks, DigiHealth3 develops medical AI for early detection and diagnosis to support clinical decision making and personalised medicine, and DigiHealth4 offers a novel value chain capability in establishing digital healthcare solutions.

Participants in DigiHealth: Faculty of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Faculty of Information and Electrical Engineering and the School of Economics, University of Oulu. Research activities are located at the university campuses of Kontinkangas and Linnanmaa. In addition to the university and Oulu University Hospital, OAMK (Oulu University of Applied Sciences) also participates in DigiHealth activities.

For more information and news, see https://www.oulu.fi/en/creating-better-health-our-digital-health-knowhow

NACCOP – An Arctic platform for innovation work in healthcare

The NACCOP (Nordic Arctic Co-creation Platform) project’s target was to strengthen the innovation work of SMEs in healthcare and wellbeing by developing an Arctic platform for the Nordic countries to co-operate through a quadruple helix model. The platform supported ecosystem work and provided a network of innovation environments and services. It brought together stakeholders from all sectors of society and enabled SMEs to develop innovative new solutions.

Small and medium-sized companies were thus able to develop innovative products and services through multi-professional cooperation, based on the needs of the end-users from the public healthcare sector. The expertise of the universities brought in research-based product and service development.

To Connect and Collaborate

The co-creation platform was the channel for SMEs to connect, collaborate across borders, and innovate together. The platform enabled the development of new digital tools, digital social innovation, new services as well as new business models for health and wellbeing services. The platform also enabled knowledge sharing and strengthened the possibilities to live and work in the north.

https://www.oamk.fi/en/partnership/rdi-projects/naccop 

POPsote – a reform of health and social services in Northern Ostrobothnia

The Health and social services reform is a national reform led by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.

The objective of the reform is to ensure the health and social services equally for all Finnish people.

The focus will be on the basic services and the early problem prevention. The possibility to get help in an early phase is important in order to stop a small issue from escalating.

One of the main issues is to improve the availability of the services and accelerate the access to treatment. In the health and social centres of the future the customer will receive all the needed services in one place.

The population of Northern Ostrobothnia is ageing rapidly and is in more need of services than before.The decreasing birthrate, on the other hand, will reduce the number of working-age people contributing to tax revenue. The health and social services will be reformed, so that the rise of costs can be stopped and the equal health and social services for future generations can be secured as well.

The service reform in Northern Ostrobothnia will focus on the citizens

We have established the POPsote-project in the Northern Ostrobothnia in order to move the reform forward in our region. All of the municipalities and the health and social service organisations are part of the project.

The objective of the reform is to improve the availability of health and social services and the service experience. The development work will be done together with the people of the municipalities and multiple stakeholders.

You can follow the national health and social services reform at soteuudistus.fi

Read more: https://popsote.fi/

The main idea of this project is to modernise Oulu University Hospital (OYS) in such a way that it becomes the smartest hospital in the world, utilising the most advanced technologies and providing personalised and effective healthcare services.

The Future Hospital project also brings business opportunities for health technology companies that provide innovative health solutions.

OYS 2030