The Inter­na­tion­al Nordic Con­fer­ence on Dig­i­tal Health and Wire­less Solu­tions in Oulu reveals the future of health­care

The Inter­na­tion­al Nordic Con­fer­ence on Dig­i­tal Health and Wire­less Solu­tions con­vened in the vibrant city of Oulu, Fin­land, bring­ing togeth­er pio­neers, experts, and enthu­si­asts from around the globe. The con­fer­ence was a per­fect oppor­tu­ni­ty for col­lab­o­ra­tion, cre­ativ­i­ty, and explo­ration in the field of dig­i­tal health and wire­less solu­tions.

As Oulu is a recog­nised hub for research and devel­op­ment in dig­i­tal health and wire­less com­mu­ni­ca­tions glob­al­ly, there could not be a bet­ter place to hold a con­fer­ence, which pri­mar­i­ly focus­es on this sec­tor. The event, orga­nized by Dig­i­tal Health (Digi­Health) and 6G Enabled Sus­tain­able Solu­tions (6GESS) research pro­grams of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu, gath­ered more than 250 par­tic­i­pants from 19 coun­tries in the Lasaret­ti Hotel on 7 and 8 May 2024. The con­fer­ence served as an ide­al plat­form for pro­fes­sion­als, researchers, health com­pa­nies, and enthu­si­asts alike to share infor­ma­tion on the lat­est advance­ments, chal­lenges, and emerg­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties. From ground­break­ing tech­nolo­gies to vision­ary insights, the event offered a panoram­ic view of the future of health­care.

On the first day, the pro­gram began with the open­ing note deliv­ered by the Con­fer­ence Pres­i­dent, Prof Jar­mo Repo­nen, fol­lowed by dig­i­tal greet­ings from the Min­is­ter of Social Affairs and Health, Kaisa Juu­so. In addi­tion to sci­en­tif­ic papers, the con­fer­ence brought togeth­er 24 promi­nent keynote and invit­ed speak­ers, includ­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tives of WHO, EU, and lead­ing research insti­tutes in the USA, Cana­da, Japan, Aus­tralia, cen­tral Euro­pean and Nordic coun­tries. Michiel Sweerts’ keynote talk was espe­cial­ly sig­nif­i­cant to the busi­ness-ori­ent­ed audi­ence. Michiel Sweerts is Head of the Research Sec­tor for eHealth, Well-Being, and Age­ing at Direc­torate-Gen­er­al Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Net­works, Con­tent and Tech­nol­o­gy in the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion. His keynote shed light on cur­rent EU poli­cies and research ini­tia­tives on dig­i­tal health and pro­vid­ed a com­pre­hen­sive under­stand­ing of the EU’s vision for dig­i­tal health. Oth­er pre­sen­ta­tions focused on the cur­rent trends in dig­i­tal health, data pri­va­cy, secu­ri­ty, and equi­ty in health­care deliv­ery, dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion in health­care, remote care, dig­i­tal­iza­tion in health edu­ca­tion, clin­i­cal deci­sion sup­port, med­ical AI, and many oth­ers. The top­ics were cov­ered through lec­tures, sub­mit­ted papers, a poster exhi­bi­tion, site vis­its, and com­pa­ny stands. The event forged col­lab­o­ra­tive part­ner­ships and net­works across acad­e­mia, indus­try, and health­care sec­tors. The par­tic­i­pants also had an oppor­tu­ni­ty to lis­ten to com­pa­nies’ pre­sen­ta­tions, find out more about top health inno­va­tions, and talk to their devel­op­ers present at the booths locat­ed in the exhi­bi­tion area.

The com­pa­nies show­cas­ing their solu­tions onsite includ­ed Medanets, Esko Sys­tems, Nucu, Bol­dyn Net­works, NGK Europe GmbH, Pho­ton­Tech Inno­va­tions Co., Ltd., PLM Group Suo­mi, and Iiwari Track­ing Solu­tions.

The sec­ond day of the con­fer­ence was devot­ed to site vis­its. One of them enabled a close look at the new premis­es of the OYS — Oulu Uni­ver­si­ty Hos­pi­tal to learn more about the OYS2030 project. The par­tic­i­pants wit­nessed cut­ting-edge tech­nolo­gies and advanced med­ical prac­tices and learnt about the hospital’s com­mit­ment to excel­lence in spe­cial­ized med­ical care. Then it was time to dis­cov­er test­ing and devel­op­ment envi­ron­ments, the OYS Test­Lab and the Mit­t­lab. OYS TestLab’s premis­es can repli­cate var­i­ous hos­pi­tal units, such as an oper­at­ing the­atre, clin­ics, wards, and con­trol rooms. The Mit­t­lab is a med­ical imag­ing teach­ing and test lab­o­ra­to­ry. Both envi­ron­ments are locat­ed on the premis­es of Oulu Uni­ver­si­ty Hos­pi­tal. The pro­gram also includ­ed a vis­it to the Acces­si­ble Home envi­ron­ment for test­ing and train­ing at Oulu Uni­ver­si­ty of Applied Sci­ences, Nokia’s lab­o­ra­to­ry OTA­VA estab­lished for wire­less test­ing, and Uni­ver­si­ty Health Tech Research Lab­o­ra­to­ry tours.

’The best result of the con­fer­ence was that we man­aged to gath­er in Oulu a large group of mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary experts from var­i­ous fields to dis­cuss health-relat­ed themes and to net­work. The sci­en­tif­ic pre­sen­ta­tions were excel­lent, and the on-site vis­it loca­tions were inter­est­ing. We received a lot of pos­i­tive feed­back about the event,’ said the Con­fer­ence Pres­i­dent, Prof Jar­mo Repo­nen.

’It was incred­i­ble to have so many great speak­ers and exhibitors from all over the world join us for the con­fer­ence. We aimed to pro­vide high-qual­i­ty sci­en­tif­ic con­tent. How­ev­er, secur­ing a suf­fi­cient num­ber of review­ers for the vast num­ber of sub­mis­sions was daunt­ing, as we required three con­flict-of-inter­est-free review­ers for each paper. The results were out­stand­ing, and the sci­en­tif­ic con­tent includ­ed a two-vol­ume book in the respect­ed Com­mu­ni­ca­tions in Com­put­er and Infor­ma­tion Sci­ence series by Springer Pub­lish­ers. I think this is quite an achieve­ment for the Oulu region,’ con­clud­ed Mariel­la Särestönie­mi, Adjunct Pro­fes­sor at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu and chair­per­son of the Sci­en­tif­ic Com­mit­tee.

As the cur­tains drew on the Inter­na­tion­al Nordic Con­fer­ence on Dig­i­tal Health and Wire­less Solu­tions, gained expe­ri­ence, estab­lished con­tacts and dis­cus­sions will con­tin­ue to shape the land­scape of health­care for years to come. The con­fer­ence high­light­ed the impor­tance of tech­nol­o­gy, col­lab­o­ra­tion, and respon­si­ble inno­va­tion in advanc­ing health­care. Let us con­tin­ue this jour­ney of explo­ration and chart­ing a path towards a health­i­er, more con­nect­ed future.

Text: Joan­na Sep­pä­nen, Mar­ket­ing & Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, Busi­nes­sOulu