The social, health and rescue services division (Sotepe) of the City of Helsinki has joined the CleverHealth Network (CHN) ecosystem to strengthen innovative cooperation between primary health care and specialised medical care. Joining the network opens new opportunities for the city to develop its services together with HUS and business partners.
Representing the city in the network are Human Resources and Development Director Sara Rautiainen and Research, Development and Innovation Manager Ulla Väisänen. They represent the social, health and rescue services division (Sotepe), which is responsible for organising social and health care as well as rescue services in Helsinki. Helsinki is the most significant primary health care provider in Finland.
Broad responsibility for the development of basic services
Sotepe covers Helsinki’s primary health care, social services and fire and rescue services. In recent years, service development has focused particularly on service packages, client work and client interfaces. At the same time, a broad portfolio review is underway aiming to improve visibility into ongoing development projects.
In January, Sotepe approved its own service strategy, whose cross-cutting themes include among others innovation development and continuous development of staff. With these policies, the aim is to renew services and strengthen a more unified operational culture.
Cooperation with HUS and new opportunities for projects
One of the main reasons for joining the CleverHealth Network is the desire to deepen cooperation with HUS and to explore how primary health care and specialised medical care could be more closely linked. Ulla Väisänen sees that joint projects can bring significant benefits to both professionals and Helsinki residents alike. Joint development is also seen as motivating from the staff’s perspective.
In addition, the network’s business partners bring a new kind of added value: the opportunity to tackle challenges together and find solutions that would not emerge within administrative departments alone.
Rautiainen and Väisänen describe their role above all as finding the right partners, facilitating joint projects and connecting the whole to the city’s strategic objectives. For CHN, it is interesting to hear about the challenges in Sotepe and how the ecosystem could solve real everyday needs together, such as developing more functional care pathways. In future development, Ulla Väisänen emphasises new ways of working, especially the utilisation of new technologies and artificial intelligence.
What does Sotepe bring to the ecosystem?
Helsinki’s Sotepe is a large and versatile organisation, bringing significant expertise, enthusiasm and a willingness to develop joint solutions to the network. Extensive networks and the ability to identify different service needs strengthen the ecosystem’s capacity to generate impactful projects.
Discussions have already identified interesting project ideas, such as sustainable development solutions, the broad utilisation of artificial intelligence and themes related to promoting wellbeing and health, which could be developed in close cooperation with HUS.
The aim is to build cooperation that leads to concrete solutions brought to practice – ones that benefit both patients and professionals. Achieving success together requires finding the right contacts and strengthening a shared will and for this, CleverHealth Network provides an excellent platform.
