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HIMSS and Health 2.0 is a not-to-be-missed showcase for Finnish healthcare experts

The HIMSS and Health 2.0 European Conference is a leading international event on digital healthcare and will be held for the first time in Finland from 11 to 13 June 2019.

Writer

Jukka Vahti

Project Director, Digital power and democracy

Published

HIMSS and Health 2.0 will bring together digital healthcare innovations, companies working in the sector, experts, decision-makers and start-ups at Messukeskus Helsinki, Expo and Convention Centre, to discuss topical healthcare issues and future visions.

The event is expected to attract more than 2,000 experts from around the world to network with each other and find inspiration.

The programme has been built around five key themes of topical interest: integrating health and social care; homecare issues; promoting a secure, ethical and actionable flow of data; the use of AI; and opportunities for and challenges of open innovation. The event will feature world-class speakers, including some of Finland’s leading experts.

Thanks to its innovative reputation, Finland was selected as the new venue for the conference, and the Finnish health sector is strongly involved in the conference arrangements. (Read more about the background to the event here.)

Strong demand for stands at Pavilion Finland

Finnish health-sector companies will present themselves as an entity of their own in Pavilion Finland, an impressive display commanding a central position in the hall. It has already been enlarged once to accommodate the strong demand for stands.

The participants will include more than 30 companies and organisations, including the Pharmaceutical Information Centre, Duodecim, Firstbeat and about a dozen health-sector start-ups, according to Miia Hakulinen, Sales Manager at Messukeskus Helsinki, who is responsible for the sales of Pavilion Finland.

The event is supported by and organised in conjunction with a number of Finnish organisations, including: the Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, Sitra (The Finnish Innovation Fund), Business Finland, the City of Helsinki, the University of Helsinki, HUS Helsinki University Hospital, OuluHealth, Turku Science Park and Messukeskus Helsinki, Expo and Convention Centre. As their common goal, the organisations involved strive to improve healthcare by means of information and technology.

For example, Sitra intends to demonstrate the journey from system-centred medical care to the human-oriented and individualised promotion of well-being.

“The future of healthcare relies on the ethical use of data. With its extensive personal information registers, Finland is unique in the world – a real promised land in terms of the use of data,” says Jaana Sinipuro from Sitra. “In the future, real-time well-being data on individuals combined with reliable data owned by authorities will create new kinds of services, such as those being developed, for example, in Sitra’s fair data pilot projects.”

As for HUS Helsinki University Hospital, the University of Helsinki and the City of Helsinki, they will build a fair stand where visitors will have a chance to get acquainted with customers’ experience paths from the viewpoints of different profiles. They can experience the path from the perspectives of a child, a person of working age and an elderly person. These were selected to demonstrate the integration, technological solutions and digital services of various operators.

“Finland has something to shout about

Minna Hendolin, Senior Director, Health & Wellbeing at Business Finland, encourages Finnish companies and health-sector operators to take full advantage of the event: “The fact that we attracted this conference to Finland is proof of Finland’s pioneering role in the health sector and of an excellent collaboration between the operators in the Team Finland spirit.

“The event is an excellent venue to showcase the best individualised health solutions and practices in the digital transformation of healthcare to an international expert audience. We have something to shout about, such as the public-private partnership project FinnGen, which is laying the foundations for new health innovations.”

FinnGen is a unique research project with the aim of generating genetic data on the 500,000 Finns who have provided their biological samples to the biobank. So far, the research consortium has already attracted nine international pharmaceutical companies to join the project. Another highlight to be presented at the conference will be the Finnish testbed network that is currently under development.

Showcasing competences and accelerating investments

Salla Hirvonen, Key Account Director, Health & LS at BusinessOulu, points out that the HIMSS and Health 2.0 European Conference is an excellent opportunity for Finland to showcase its competences in the health technology sector: “Since OuluHealth is known for its ICT competence, at the event we will be demonstrating the opportunities provided by 5G technology for healthcare.

“Future innovations are being developed in Oulu in close collaboration with companies, the research community and healthcare professionals. Our network includes some 600 companies, and many of them will come to Helsinki in June. We are really looking forward to the opportunity to hear about and discuss the latest technologies, and to network with professionals within the sector.”

Kimmo Koponen, Senior Business Advisor at Helsinki Business Hub, emphasises how HIMSS should also be seen as an opportunity to attract international investment: “That is why we are currently collecting information on what kinds of new opportunities for research, product development and other co-operation Finnish organisations have to offer to foreign companies. Every operator within the Finnish health sector should make sure that they have their name on this list by contacting us.”

Further information on and registration for the event on the HIMSS Europe website.

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