Finland excels in health innovation, both in-person and digital

HELSINKI -- By Kim Yoon-mi/Korea Biomedical Review correspondent -- When invited for a media tour of Helsinki University Hospital (HUS), the largest tertiary medical institution in Finland, I expected a hectic and urgent medical scene similar to that of a Korean university hospital in Seoul.

However, the entrance of the Meilahti Bridge Hospital, the new building constructed a year ago on the HUS Helsinki University Hospital campus, provided a relaxing atmosphere, with a few people sipping coffee at the café in the lobby.

How can this big hospital -- providing specialized care for 2 million people, treating rare disease patients, and performing organ transplants across Finland -- be so calm, silent, and spacious?

The reason seems to stem from the less dense population of Finland (5 million) and the Nordic country’s public healthcare system. Finnish patients cannot visit a secondary or tertiary hospital directly unless their occupational health provider or a primary clinician refers them to a higher institution. In contrast, patients in Korea, with a population of 50 million, can visit university hospitals mostly located in Seoul, even if it means hours of waiting.

The Covid-19 pandemic also played a part to reduce emergency or severe cases. 

After the pandemic, HUS did not see many severe infection cases or severe traffic accident cases, according to Pekka Lahdenne, Project Director, Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa (HUS).

Lahdenne escorted the press to newly built ICUs with 58 beds. At the time of the visit, 40 beds were in operation. Every ICU patient is cared for by at least one nurse for 24 hours.

The sliding door separating ICU beds is made of transparent glass, enabling another nurse in the next bed to check on the patient when the attending nurse is away. At the HUS Meilahti Bridge Hospital, 85 percent of hospital beds are single beds, which is the hospital’s policy to ensure the privacy and wellbeing of patients, Lahdenne said.

In the patient ward, every gas and electronic outlet is installed vertically on the wall next to the bed to prevent electrical cords from hanging over the patient. In the corner of a patient's bedroom, a camera is installed.

“That’s not CCTV. It’s developed by an AI company to monitor any abnormal movements of a patient, such as a fall from the bed, and it sends an urgent alarm to the attending nurse’s mobile phone,” Lahdenne said.

Advanced digital health realized through home dialysis

HUS excels not only in its brick-and-mortar facilities but also in virtual healthcare.

A prime example is the Home Dialysis Project, launched under CleverHealth Network, an ecosystem coordinated by HUS. For patients, visiting a hospital for dialysis alone is a huge burden. This Finnish project brought all the necessary lab processes and supplies to patients’ homes, allowing both patients and clinicians to communicate in real time through an app integrated into the electronic health records (EHR).

“Home dialysis benefits include better patient outcomes and improved cost-effectiveness in staffing, travel costs, medication, and hospitalization,” said Virpi Rauta, nephrologist and principal investigator of the CleverHealth Network eCare for Me Home Dialysis Project at HUS.

Most importantly, a 2021 study in Finland showed that home hemodialysis was the cheapest compared to all other modalities including automated peritoneal dialysis and continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis, and in-center modalities, Rauta said.

In addition, home dialysis enables patient data to be saved from mobile devices, which are more reliable, and these data can be utilized for long-term changes in parameters and research use. Also, it allows AI models to identify adverse outcomes early, she explained.

This home dialysis system has already been commercialized by Fujitsu, a partner of CleverHealth Network. In terms of the financial model, HUS gets the system without fees and gains royalties when the product is sold to other parties including hospitals, according to Paivi Sillanaukee, Special Envoy at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, Finland.

Emergency, nursing training gets real at Metropolia’s Simulation Hospital

When it comes to training for emergency rescue workers and nurses, the Simulation Hospital at Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, located in the eastern area of Helsinki, boasts its expertise.

It is called the Simulation "Hospital," but there are no patients here, and it has yet to offer training for medical school students. It trains students who aspire to become emergency rescue workers and nurses.

Still, the Simulation Hospital at Metropolia is the largest in Europe, in terms of the number of medical departments. Simulation rooms include a home simulation room, delivery room, pediatrics room, operating room, and monitoring room.

Feilsin, a 22-year-old Finnish student in the first year of public health nursing training at Metropolia, said she chose this school because she heard from social media that the technologies at Metropolia were very advanced.

“I've heard so much about this school, especially that it’s one of the big ones,” Feilsin said. “When I researched the schools, this one piqued my interest because of the location and all the advanced technology they have, and nice reviews from other people, compared to other schools.”

She also noted that she had many international classmates from a diversity of countries.

Her comments aligned with Metropolia's policy to increase the number of international students, aiming to boost Finland's workforce, which faces challenges from low birth rates and an aging population.

According to Simo Mustila, Deputy CEO of Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, the university offers 80 degree programs and 19 of them are English courses.