E-Health Centre in Östersund to accelerate health innovations

“We expect great things!” said Mona Modin Tjulin, Chairwoman of Östersund Disability Care and Habilitation Services Committee during the recent opening of the E-Health Center in Östersund. The audience on the seventh floor at Zätagränd 3 agreed. Everyone expects this to be the start of something big.

Physically, the E-Health Center is not so remarkable. It is 800 meters office space with fantastic views over Storsjön (and a ski slope where the snow cannons were blasting away). The most obvious innovation is that there are no walls – healthcare professionals and business people share the space together. This should open up opportunities for many interesting discussions around the coffee machine. Something everyone hopes will facilitate decision making and encourage the implementation of new processes and products in the healthcare industry.

Or as Göran Larsson, Research Director in Region Jämtland Härjedalen and Member of the Board of Medtech4Health expressed it, “With this collaboration we want to discover needs we did not know existed and make innovations we did not understand were necessary.” He also hoped that healthcare will be compelled to prepare for the future and change its structures.

Ribbon tying ceremony links county council, municipality and business community

The opening ceremony started with speeches and ribbon-tying. The ribbons, in the colours of the “Republic of Jämtland”, were tied by the Chairman of the Regional Council, Ann-Marie Johansson, Mona Modin Tjulin and Bert-Ola Bångman, Olsund Business Manager at Sigma IT Consulting.

Afterwards everyone mingled to view the different products. Medtech4Health’s Kristina Svensson (who wrote the original Swedish text on which this translation is based) was particular interested in the demonstration of a mobile emergency cart. The carts can be placed at health centers around thinly populated Jämtland and Härjedalen. Using the cart, a doctor can make an assessment of everything about a patient that does not require “squeeze and feel”. The cost of a cart is equivalent to the hire for two weeks of a locum doctor, so the investment quickly pays for itself.

Above, Mona Modin Tjelin tests the camera that gives the doctor at the other end a very good picture. Below, Sara Qvarlander from CMTF in Umeå looks with AR glasses at a heart undergoing fibrillation.

Sigma, Tieto, Microsoft, Cambio and Medtech4Health

Before the ribbon-tying ceremony, the day began with inspirational lectures. Representatives of Sigma, Tieto, Microsoft, Cambio and Medtech4Health talked about e-health and the future. A recurrent theme during the day, taken up by Cambio among others, was the necessity of collaboration. Collaboration even between parties who usually see one another as competitors. It is important to open up systems so that everyone can build applications that communicate with each other.

Tieto urged major players to support small start-ups in healthcare, and showed an example of how they won a procurement where they gathered just over a dozen stakeholders.

Microsoft offered a sneak preview of a new film about the possibilities of AI in healthcare. (Both Aifloo and Coala were glimpsed in the film.) The film was gorgeous, but Kristina felt the background music a bit too dramatic for her taste. (Sorry Microsoft!).

Sigma mentioned that though we often talk about products, it is on the process side that the greatest values can be created.

Kristina Svensson talked about what is happening at Medtech4Health and invited everyone to contact her or Sara Qvarlander from the CMTF node during the lunch or afternoon if they had any pointers to give or suggestions for where Medtech4Health should focus in coming years to maximize its impact.

Thanks are due to the organisers and all the participants for a great day in Östersund. We look forward to following the progress of the E-Health Centre, and to returning to visit again.