Welcome to Finland – Finnish digital health knowhow aims to inspire at HIMSS22 Europe in Helsinki in June

HIMSS22 Europe, Europe’s most influential event for digital health, brings together health tech innovations and pioneers to Helsinki Expo and Convention Centre (Messukeskus) to learn and connect over the extensive program with over 120 expert sessions.

The event is a joint effort between HIMSS and Finnish partners. An unforeseen combination of public organisations from Finland have joined forces to bring forward Finnish know-how on digital health and health data. The Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra, Business Finland and the City of Helsinki are taking the lead as main partners. In addition, several ministries, organisations and cities are supporting the event.

Data is key in unlocking healthcare effectiveness

The Finnish Pavilion exhibition area, with its dozens of company stands,is a showcase of Finnish expertise in digital health for the international audience.

The Finnish Pavilion stage program runs nonstop throughout the conference and centers around four major themes. The most significant one is health data and how that data can reshape clinical practices.

One of the speakers in the health data theme, Dr. Antti Iivanainen, Development Director, Oy Apotti Ab, says:“To care for the individual, we must care for the population. The nut to crack is how we manage systemic effectiveness or uneffectiveness. It is a common misunderstanding that this is a question of money but even more than that, it is about the data: the availability, quality and interoperability of data.”

On stage with Dr. Iivanainen are Finnish companies like Reaktor, BeeHealthy, Terveystalo, BCB Medical, Predicell and Duodecim, sharing their examples of applying health data to solve real-life problems.

Active ageing and the world’s smartest hospitals – cases from Finland

In addition to health data and its applications, the Finnish Pavilion program sheds a light on active and healthy ageing and tools to promote it as well as on how the world’s smartest hospitals are built and made pandemic-safe in the future as well.

“We are excited about the Finnish Pavilion program. It is a combination of success stories and lessons learned, both from public sector healthcare providers and businesses. And I can say that it is properly prepared: We started the planning in 2019 and have re-started it twice since. We can’t wait for the event to finally take place”, says Kaisu Sutinen, Senior Business Advisor, Health Capital Helsinki, coordinating the Finnish Pavilion program.

The stage is hosted by Finnish author, podcaster Lotta Backlund.

“Not being able to meet and experience things together the past few years has led us to suffer from a certain inspiration debt. We intend to remedy that! On stage we will be sharing interesting, extraodinary stories from real life and I can’t wait for everyone to meet up and get inspired together”, she says.

Finnish Pavilion stage program

Wednesday 15 June

10:30-15:00   How data-based innovations reshape healthcare

Keynote by Dr. Visa Honkanen, Development Director, HUS Helsinki University Hospital

Topics:

• Value-based healthcare in practice in Finland. Cases and examples by the City of Helsinki and University of Eastern Finland, together with BCB Medical and Monidor.
• Managing information overload for doctors while increasing patient value. Johannes Ahlqvist, Specialist, Heath Data at Sitra interviews Dr. Elina Pimiä and Dr. Rasmus Latvala.
• From patient to customer: electronic health records helping to bridge the gap. Dr. Antti Iivanainen, Development Director at Apotti and Mikael Rinnetmäki, Founder, Sensotrend.
• Developing digital health services in the private sector – takeaways for the public sector. Cases from Reaktor, BeeHealthy and Terveystalo.

15:00-16:30   How to support active and healthy ageing

• Speakers: Maritta Haavisto, Service District Director, the City of Helsinki and Heidi Anttila, KATI programme lead, Finnish Institute of Health and Welfare
• Panel discussion with Ainone, Medanets and Navigil, moderated by Saara Hassinen, CEO at Healthtech Finland.

Thursday 16 June

10:00-11:00   Pandemic-safe indoor solutions – presenting the E3 project and ecosystem

11:30-13:00     Building the smartest hospitals in the world.
Hear the stories behind the newest and smartest Finnish hospitals in Oulu, Turku and Helsinki. Featuring Dr. Leena Setälä and Dr. Pekka Lahdenne.

13:00-14:30     Leading a healthy life amidst pandemics.
A panel discussion with university researchers and companies with products to boost the immune system of the individuals.

The full Finnish Pavilion program will be published here: https://www.himss.org/event-himss-europe/schedule

HIMSS22 Europe program and registration (advance rates apply until 30 May): https://www.himss.org/event-himss-europe

Media accreditation: HIMSS, Ellie Paton, epaton@himss.org

Contact information:
Kaisu Sutinen, Senior Business Advisor, Health Capital Helsinki

Tel. +358 40 585 0623, kaisu.sutinen@healthcapitalhelsinki.fi

About HIMSS22 Europe

The congress is organised by HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society), a global advisor and thought leader organisation. HIMSS22 Europe addresses the reformation of Europe’s health systems across six main conference themes: digital maturity and security, artificial intelligence, workforce development, digital public health, person-enabled health and integrated care.

The Finnish partners of the event are City of Helsinki with its Health Capital Helsinki project, Business Finland, The Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra, University of Helsinki, HUS Helsinki University Hospital, Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, Turku Science Park, Health Tampere, Kuopio Health, OuluHealth, and the event site Helsinki Expo and Convention Centre.