Since its launch in 2017, Spinverse has been an active facilitator for the partners of CleverHealth Network that develops top-class health tech solutions to solve clinical challenges to support patients, care personnel and clinical researchers. eCare for Me is one of the subprojects of the ecosystem where Helsinki University Hospital (HUS) nephrologist Virpi Rauta and HUS Chief researcher and Head physician Kimmo Porkka lead their respective research activities together with a group of clinicians, technology companies and university researchers. We asked Virpi and Kimmo how the projects are progressing.
CleverHealth Network is an innovation ecosystem processing and cultivating health and welfare data. It is funded by Business Finland and its member organisations. The ecosystem, consisting of companies and health care experts work together to develop world-class solutions based on the cultivation of healthcare data to solve clinical challenges.
Smart applications for home dialysis ease the daily life of dialysis patients and medical staff
In the Home dialysis project, the partners develop an application designed for the home dialysis process. The application can be used on smart phones or computer and helps in the monitoring activities related with renal care and it ensures that the communication between the patient and dialysis nurse and accessory orders take place smoothly and reliably.
In addition to a smart application, the project partners develop a series of meters and sensors to be used by the home dialysis patient. For example, they will be used to monitor the patient’s activity levels, fluid balance and general quality of life. The devices will also be able to identify any probability of risk events, and some of the devices will be able to send out automatic data and alerts to care personnel.
Virpi’s ideas and extensive expertise on the topic ignited the Home dialysis project, making her the leading researcher in the project. Virpi finds working in the project extremely rewarding. Over the years, Virpi has researched the processes related to home dialysis and has noticed that the routines and accessory orders are surprisingly complex and time-consuming. She is delighted to be able to work on the home dialysis concept and its related processes and tools she has been thinking about for years, and, eventually, to be able to productise the concept.
The project brings all-new academic research on four different areas: In addition to nephrology research in HUS, Aalto university engages in usability research and cost-effectiveness analyses, and University of Helsinki does socio-psychological motivation research. Virpi characterises the HUS collaboration with company partners, TietoEVRY, Kaiku Health, Intito, Gillie.AI and Vivago Oy, as “brilliant”.
Kimmo Porkka’s project team harnesses the latest technologies to implement personalised therapies
Chief researcher and Head Physician Kimmo Porkka and his project team at Helsinki
When clinicians want to discover predictive data related to various disease variants of, for example, acute leukemia, AI can be harnessed to mine large amounts of data. In these cases, the patients can be enrolled more effectively to clinical drug trials or personalised treatment. The project results have indicated that the personalised treatment has extended the lifespan of those patients with acute myeloid leukemia who are no longer responsive to other treatment.
Kimmo Porkka is a blood disease specialist and says that the project focus, diagnostics of acute leukemia, is just one of the possible application areas, and the project results will have remarkable potential in other areas of health care as well. HUS and its partners are looking into scaling up and productising the tools and processes developed in the project, also with international markets in mind. This is expected to bring a remarkable competitive edge when state-of-the-art Finnish health tech expertise is exported abroad.
According to Kimmo, one of the most enriching aspects in this project has been the opportunity to work in a community where ideas are exchanged between different actors: the project brings together health care experts, top researchers from universities, large and small companies, and HUS IT department. The contact network has also extended to patient associations and other stakeholders. In this project, HUS partners with TietoEVRY, Aiforia, Intito and Kaiku Health.
Spinverse facilitates the CleverHealth Network
The aim of the CleverHealth Network is to create better care for patients and export product and service innovations developed by Finnish companies. Spinverse’s role in the CleverHealth Network is to facilitate the collaboration between ecosystem partners and help the project activities roll towards its goals. According to Principal Consultant Markku Heino at Spinverse, the dedicated HUS clinicians who relentlessly work on the research activities in this collaborative network are an integral part of the health tech research and development work conducted in the CleverHealth ecosystem.
Would you like to learn more about the CleverHealth Network? Join the virtual get-together event on 10th Dec 2020 for inspiring keynotes and fresh updates on the project!