Vantaa–Kerava wellbeing services county (VAKE) is strengthening its research, development, education and innovation activities (RDI) by joining the CHN ecosystem. The partnership aims to develop healthcare innovations for the needs of primary care, support early-stage piloting of solutions and make preventive models a more visible part of everyday services in a multicultural area.
A multicultural area and need-based development
Minna Elomaa-Krapu, VAKE’s director of research, development, education and innovation (RDI), highlights the area’s multicultural nature and broad operating environment as key strengths. VAKE provides services to almost 300,000 residents with around 6,000 professionals. Development work is carried out together with experts, residents and stakeholders, with customer panels as a distinctive way to involve residents in shaping healthcare services. The aim is to keep humanity at the heart of everything they do.
Impact at the core: development linked to everyday services
The county’s strategic goals focus on good customer encounters, quick access to services and service impact. In practice, this means a clear principle for RDI work: every development effort must be directly linked to renewing services and strengthening residents’ health and safety. Elomaa-Krapu also underlines two-way value creation, partnerships should deliver benefits both within the organisation and at the customer interface.
A key success factor is ensuring that professionals doing day-to-day patient work also have opportunities to take part in development. When everyday observations and needs are included early, new operating models become a natural part of work and deliver genuine benefits for everyone.
Joining the CHN ecosystem enables early-phase pilots, preventive solutions and exploiting opportunities of AI
Joining the CHN ecosystem appealed to VAKE in particular because it offers a way to stay at the forefront of development and take part in early proof-of-concept testing of innovations. In primary care, new solutions often emerge less frequently than in specialised care, even though the need is significant, especially from the perspective of prevention and proactive work. VAKE is interested in models that help people stay healthy and well while taking language and cultural differences into account, and in how AI can support this overall approach.
Project-based work and expanding testbed activity
VAKE favours project-based work for resource reasons as well. Project funding makes it possible to arrange substitutes for core duties so that in-house experts can be allocated to development work. Co-development with companies is seen as essential, which is why VAKE is expanding its testbed activity to make it easier for companies to join trials and pilots in a real service environment.
What VAKE brings to CHN collaboration
VAKE’s strengths include a true multicultural operating environment, a positive development culture and a long tradition of working with companies. It also draws on service design expertise that supports needs-based solution development. The area offers several development platforms such as health centres, mobile hospital services and teaching health and family centres. These can inspire companies and enable practical testing of different solutions.
Looking ahead: themes for research and development
Future research and development initiatives can be shaped around themes such as strengthening the inclusion and functional capacity of diverse population groups, promoting multiculturalism, and developing impactful services for the future. Tomorrow’s innovations are driven by sustained investment in disease prevention and health‑promoting solutions, supported by the intelligent use of diverse data sources. Elomaa-Krapu expects CHN collaboration to generate a strong portfolio of projects that will offer opportunities to envision new approaches, move quickly into trials and build a more sustainable future through impact and joint efforts.
