Finland, known as the world’s happiest country for the past seventh year in a row, is set to kick off the second annual Radical Health Festival in Helsinki on May 21, gathering health experts and policymakers from around the world for a three-day deep dive into “Prevention and Precision at Scale.” 

In its inaugural festival last year, it drew over 1,000 attendees across Europe and beyond, featuring over 150 speakers and 100 companies and organizations. 

This year, Finland’s Minister of Social Affairs, Sanni Grahn-Laasonen, and Bavaria’s Minister of Health, Judith Gerlach, will open the event by delivering a speech on the main theme and goals, the event organizer said.

Following the speeches, Dr. Päivi Sillanaukee, Special Envoy, Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, Finland, will moderate a discussion on "Welcoming Act: Why Deploying Prevention and Precision at Scale?," inviting expert panelists such as the Head of the Novartis Foundation Dr. Ann Aerts, Chief Translational Science Officer at Phenome Health Dr. Jennifer Lovejoy, CEO Gareth Prech from World Health Innovation Summit, and Professor Kazuhiro Sakurada from RIKEN and Keio University.

Taking place at the Helsinki Expo and Convention Center, the festival features three main tracks focused on People, Innovation, and Data. 

Key topics will include integrative healthcare, brain health, digital twins, diagnostics, women’s health, AI-backed cardiology, and enhancing access to care through AI.

“In (the) heart of Helsinki, Finland, this May, we are crafting the future of healthcare. Let’s shape the future but with prevention and precision at scale. It’s critical to be radical,” Sillanaukee said in a recent social media post. 

The festival also provides an exclusive full-day program of site visits and high-level conversations for international ministerial delegations and selected participants, hosted by the Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. With particular attention to national health data registeries, secondary use of data, and age-tech, the program is expected to offer an overall view of Finland’s leading digital health landscape and an excellent opportunity to forge potential partnerships.

Korean companies expanding business in Finland

Korean digital healthcare companies are also participating in the Helsinki event to promote their health technologies and seize business opportunities. 

The participating companies include Huniverse Global, a developer of a cloud-based precision hospital information system (P-HIS) for tertiary care, and Higen Healthcare, a cloud-based healthcare IT solutions company.

Huniverse Global's Global Business Development Director Kim Hyun-jin said the company hopes to sign an agreement with a Finnish hospital to install a pilot precision hospital information system, leveraging the Radical Health Festival Helsinki 2024.  

Peter Bae, Senior Advisor at Business Finland, highlighted why Korean healthcare companies should choose Finland to invest.

According to Bae, Finland offers several advantages for healthcare companies. It boasts one of the lowest corporate tax rates in the EU at 20 percent, compared to Germany's 29.9 percent, and 25.8 percent in France and the Netherlands.

Finland also boasts its strong digital health structure.

"Finland's health data registries date back to 1953, with biobank data from the 1920s, all fully digitized and accessible," he said.

In Finnish healthcare, the electronic medical record penetration is 100 percent, he noted. Data linkage across different data sources can be done reliably at the individual level through personal ID numbers. This allows the creation of exceptionally rich datasets, which draw data from detailed clinical records stored in hospital data lakes, extensive longitudinal population-based registries, disease-specific databases, and versatile biobank samples and data collections, Bae said. 

In addition, Business Finland provides R&D, and innovation funding for companies in Finland to increase competitive advantage globally, he noted.

As a Korean healthcare company, Celltrion established a subsidiary, Celltrion Healthcare Finland Oy, in Helsinki in 2019. The Helsinki offshoot conducts marketing, sales, and distribution of biological medicines in Nordic countries.

Celltrion’s biosimilar Vegzelma (bevacizumab), a cancer drug, secured 45 percent of Finland’s bevacizumab market as of the fourth quarter of 2023, according to a Celltrion official. There are five kinds of bevacizumab treatments including the original drug available in Finland.

Oh In-je, manager at KOTRA's Helsinki Office, noted in his report in October 2023 that Finland, a fast-aging society like Korea, provides "a test bed" for opening up its public infrastructure and data, enabling both local and foreign companies to develop advanced healthcare solutions.

"This is a great opportunity for (Korean) companies to test their technologies with the aim of expanding into global markets including Europe," the report said.