Will there be a dig­i­tal health com­pe­tence net­work in Fin­land?

The Dig­i­tal Health net­work aims to be an inter­na­tion­al­ly renowned and recog­nised pio­neer that pro­motes sus­tain­able growth and well-being by accel­er­at­ing the dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion. Instead of spo­radic coop­er­a­tion, the aim is to estab­lish per­ma­nent net­work­ing activ­i­ties.

The builders of the pre­req­ui­sites for a dig­i­tal health net­work eager­ly await to see whether a dig­i­tal health and well-being tech­nol­o­gy com­pe­tence net­work will be cre­at­ed in Fin­land on the basis of the pro­pos­al of the Min­istry of Eco­nom­ic Affairs and Employ­ment in Fin­land and the Min­istry of Social Affairs and Health. Solu­tions are still required as to the fund­ing and the ulti­mate scale and form of the net­work.

A report on the needs of the sec­tor based on the views of research, busi­ness sec­tor and health­care sys­tem rep­re­sen­ta­tives was pre­pared in June, fol­lowed by pro­pos­als regard­ing the goals and tasks of the com­pe­tence net­work in Octo­ber. Stake­hold­ers from all five cities with uni­ver­si­ty hos­pi­tals are involved in the prepa­ra­tions.

Pro­fes­sor Jar­mo Repo­nen explains that the dig­i­tal health net­work has worked to link oper­a­tors togeth­er and estab­lish a com­mon image of Fin­land in dig­i­tal health.

“There is a strong will to build long-term net­work coop­er­a­tion and improve the flow of infor­ma­tion and the divi­sion of work,” says Project Man­ag­er Veera Vir­ta from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu.

The vision of the net­work is to be an inter­na­tion­al­ly renowned and recog­nised pio­neer that pro­motes sus­tain­able growth and well-being by accel­er­at­ing the dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion.

The inter­na­tion­al aspect did not arise direct­ly from the needs iden­ti­fied by indi­vid­ual oper­a­tors. Accord­ing to Vir­ta, inter­na­tion­al­i­ty would require a change in the way peo­ple think as well as moti­va­tion to start pro­mot­ing Finnish com­pe­tence as a unit­ed front.

“The chal­lenges of export and inter­na­tion­al growth can be tack­led more effec­tive­ly in clos­er coop­er­a­tion with oth­er Finnish oper­a­tors, both pri­vate and pub­lic ones,” says Vir­ta.

Needs of com­pa­nies, researchers and well­be­ing ser­vices coun­ties

In addi­tion to inter­na­tion­al­i­sa­tion, the tasks des­ig­nat­ed for the com­pe­tence net­work include a coop­er­a­tion plat­form for experts in the field, shar­ing of good prac­tices, influ­enc­ing the nation­al and inter­na­tion­al oper­at­ing envi­ron­ment and pro­mot­ing the adop­tion of dig­i­tal solu­tions.

There are dif­fer­ences in the needs of stake­hold­ers depend­ing on their indi­vid­ual per­spec­tives and, for exam­ple, the size and stage of devel­op­ment of com­pa­nies. Com­pa­nies want coop­er­a­tion with uni­ver­si­ties, clar­i­ty in project activ­i­ties, infor­ma­tion on expert par­ties as well as coop­er­a­tion and financ­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties.

From the per­spec­tive of com­pa­nies, the pro­vi­sion of sup­port ser­vices should be clar­i­fied and brand­ed bet­ter. In terms of reg­u­la­tion, for exam­ple, new com­pa­nies in par­tic­u­lar need help.

“How­ev­er, com­pa­nies may not be able to find said experts, or the help may be too expen­sive,” says Vir­ta.

First and fore­most, the well­be­ing ser­vices coun­ties want infor­ma­tion about dig­i­tal solu­tions, projects and research. The well­be­ing ser­vices coun­ties are at very dif­fer­ent stages, as some have already come a long way with regard to their oper­at­ing meth­ods, net­works and forms of coop­er­a­tion, while oth­ers are only in the process of form­ing these.

The role of well­be­ing ser­vices coun­ties in inno­va­tion activ­i­ties has been iden­ti­fied as nec­es­sary but under­uti­lized. Researchers, in turn, need sup­port for net­work­ing, find­ing part­ner­ships and build­ing large projects, among oth­er things. The orig­i­nal idea was to select the most impor­tant research spear­heads for the dig­i­tal health sec­tor, but research is being con­duct­ed so exten­sive­ly in dig­i­tal health that the research spear­heads can­not be restrict­ed too strict­ly in the network’s oper­a­tions.

“The sec­tor is already so advanced that it’s impos­si­ble to name a set of three top­ics as the most impor­tant ones in Fin­land,” says Repo­nen.

The author­i­ties want the com­pe­tence net­work to be coor­di­nat­ed and con­crete, cre­ate added val­ue and com­mit­ment and pro­vide work resources.

At the end of 2024, it will become clear whether the estab­lish­ment of a dig­i­tal net­work will receive fund­ing from the bud­get. The require­ments of a dig­i­tal health and well­be­ing techonol­o­gy net­work have been inves­ti­gat­ed by the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu, Oulu Uni­ver­si­ty of Applied Sci­ences, Turku Uni­ver­si­ty of Applied Sci­ences, Tam­pere Uni­ver­si­ty Foun­da­tion, Kuo­pio Health and Helsin­ki Part­ners Oy.

“The team works for a com­mon cause, and some­times we for­get that we come from dif­fer­ent fields. How­ev­er, it’s essen­tial that oper­a­tors are involved from a vari­ety of fields, for both nation­al impact and cred­i­bil­i­ty,” Vir­ta says.

Dig­i­tal health is one of the lead themes of InnoC­i­ties. The­mat­ic coop­er­a­tion brings togeth­er the resources of dif­fer­ent cities and pro­motes the shar­ing of good prac­tices as well as inter­na­tion­al coop­er­a­tion and invest­ments. The aim is to expe­dite the reform of busi­ness and the imple­men­ta­tion of sus­tain­able solu­tions in cities. InnoC­i­ties sup­port inno­va­tion and engage in the prac­ti­cal appli­ca­tion of research and exper­i­ment.

Con­tact per­son

Veera Vir­ta

Coor­di­na­tor, Research Unit of Health Sci­ences and Tech­nol­o­gy, Fac­ul­ty of Med­i­cine, Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu

veera.virta@oulu.fi

Source: Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu