Johanna Lammi, who started as the director of the innovation unit at HUS Helsinki University Hospital in August 2026, wants to strengthen needs-driven innovation at HUS, clarify its role in the health innovation ecosystem and build collaboration between research, companies and wellbeing services counties.
Johanna Lammi brings to HUS innovation activities a strong background in education, leadership and the development of the health and social services sector. Lammi, who holds a Master’s degree in Education and a doctorate, has had a long career at the University of Helsinki in leadership roles related to educational planning and guidance cooperation services. She has later worked in leadership positions at Diaconia University of Applied Sciences and in management consulting for wellbeing services counties.
The new role at HUS was of particular interest to Lammi because it combines digital development, innovation, the health and social services sector and a research environment. Her own career has been characterised by leading encounters: bringing together experts from different fields, building multidisciplinary collaboration and clarifying complex entities.
Needs-driven innovations in focus of the work
As the director of the innovation unit, Lammi leads a multidisciplinary team of experts and builds and strengthens collaboration between different stakeholders and guides the development of innovations created at HUS. A key objective in the coming years is to position HUS innovation activities more clearly as part of the health innovation environment.
Needs-driven innovations and their scaling are at the core of the work. According to Lammi, it is important in the innovation field to make clear what HUS does and does not do. HUS does not commercialise innovations or apply for patents itself, but is active in identification of needs, search for the right partners and development of solutions together with companies, research institutes and wellbeing services counties.
Lammi hopes that HUS’s innovation potential can be made more visible and that innovation activities will become better known both within HUS and externally. In her view, HUS has much to offer to the innovation field through its size, expertise and versatile data.
During this autumn HUS will continue the work already started on its innovation policy. Its purpose is to define what HUS aims to achieve through innovation activities and the direction in which these activities will be developed. According to Johanna Lammi, it is important that HUS’s specialised healthcare services remain accessible, impactful and cost-effective in the future. The core mission of HUS’s innovation activities is therefore to enable the delivery of ever better, smoother and more impactful specialised healthcare services.
CleverHealth Network connects needs and solutions
Lammi considers CleverHealth Network a key innovation ecosystem for HUS. It brings together real healthcare needs, versatile research expertise, data and development capabilities of key companies in the field. The involvement of wellbeing services counties and smaller companies strengthens the network’s opportunities to take the solutions developed through it to meet the needs of primary healthcare as well.
Bringing people and topics together through encounters has been a guiding force throughout Lammi’s career. In leading the HUS Innovation Unit, she also wants to bring people, organisations and ideas together so that impactful solutions can be developed for the real needs of healthcare.
Johanna Lammi concludes: “If you don’t connect, you can’t lead correct.”
