Telemedicine Centre

The Telemedicine Centre, built in 2018, demonstrates modern equipment and services employed in the fields of telemedicine, eHealth, robotics, artificial intelligence and mobile health. The Centre supports not only education and research but also the private, public and the third sector. Local companies in IT, healthcare and wellbeing can benefit from the Centre by interacting with the technologies as well as designing and developing their own new services and investments.

Companies know better the possibilities that technological solutions offer in their field of business and can develop their services. Education can serve society the best possible way when graduating students learn about modern technologies during their studies. New innovations are possible when research and development work can utilize built showrooms in their actions.

Examples of best practices under telemedicine include the following:

Medical doctor services from distance using remote access

The objective was to optimize medical care in the area with less travel for doctors and patients resulting in time savings.

Activities piloted in Kaksineuvoinen area: Kaksineuvoinen area consists of four municipalities. They have organized their Social and Healthcare services together. There is one main primary health care unit in Kauhava and four smaller units in Alahärmä, Ylihärmä, Kortesjärvi and Evijärvi. Kaksineuvoinen decided to build new process where medical doctors were only present in Kauhava main primary care unit and smaller units were equipped with technologies and distance connections. Kaksineuvoinen educated nurses to use technologies and distance connection. During consultation, nurse meets the patient and connects to communicate with doctor using remote access. Nurses have possibilities to use technologies such as patient examination camera, ear camera and stethoscope.

Results: Doctors have more time to do patient work when they do not need to drive between primary care units. Municipalities saved money.

Budget used: 2000 – 3000 € per month

Stakeholders involved: The Federtaion of Municipalities Kaksineuvoinen (Kauhava, Alahärmä, Ylihärmä, Kortesjärvi and Evijärvi), Seinäjoki University of Applied sciences

Distance policlinic for the type 1 diabetics

The objective was to offer possibility to make policlinic visits from distance (home, workplace etc.).

During the pilot activity, the selected patient group tested a new care model which included elements of self-monitoring, electronic information delivery and virtual nurse appointments through video communication. Patients were equipped with blood pressure monitoring devices and were requested to do self-monitoring. A new electronic template was created for this purpose. This template was delivered to the patient together with the appointment information from the hospital. The patient was requested to carry out self-monitoring for a 1 week period and to deliver the template to the diabetes nurse 3 days prior to the appointment, together with their insulin pump (where applicable) and blood glucose meter results. For the delivery of such information, the electronic health care service portal “Hyvis” was used. This portal provided a possibility for data secure information delivery between patient and health care professionals. Following these steps, the diabetes nurse’s appointment was arranged through a video communication solution “Vidyo”. This solution enabled virtual appointments where voice and video were delivered and the nurse could also share documents with the patient. These virtual appointments replaced equivalent control visits at the hospital.

Results: Type 1 diabetics save time and travel costs with this system.

Budget: Estimated 100 € per patient per month.

Stakeholders involved: Municipalities, Seinäjoki hospital district, Seinäjoki University of Applied sciences