16.12.2024

Promising results in the CleverHealth Network's eCare for Me project

In the photo Anja Kajanne

The eCare for Me collaboration project, led by HUS Helsinki University Hospital and funded by Business Finland, was one of the first launched within the CleverHealth Network ecosystem. As the project approaches its final stages, project manager Anja Kajanne summarised the impressive results and lessons learned from this five-year project.

 

From emergency room to project manager

Anja Kajanne joined HUS alongside her nursing studies in 1994 and has worked as a nurse at HUS Acute since 1997. In 2016, Kajanne moved from the emergency room to HUS IT to build the Emergencyhub under Health Village. She graduated as a Master of Social and Health Sciences among the first from the Master's programme launched by HUS and the University of Vaasa in 2018. Soon thereafter, she started working in the CleverHealth Network ecosystem as an administrative project manager, enabling research and development work in the eCare for Me project.

 

Kajanne describes how the project's three research areas form a continuum of the patient pathway: For Rare Diseases, the goal was to promote early detection of the disease, while in the Acute Leukemia project, the aim was to find personalised treatment for the patient by means of a more precise diagnosis. In the Home Dialysis project, remote tools were developed to improve home care and professional monitoring of dialysis patients.

 

An extensive project

 

The five-year project took longer than planned and did not come without surprises. According to Anja Kajanne, such a long project is not necessarily ideal for partner companies, as reserving resources for a long period of time is always challenging. Other surprises may also occur in long-term projects. The COVID-19 pandemic took its toll on the project’s progress, as Anja Kajanne and many other key persons from HUS temporarily moved to critical COVID-19 tasks. Initiating innovative business collaboration in the early days of the CleverHealth Network required new thinking from a hospital organization focused on public health care. While the ecosystem and business collaboration were seen as highly necessary and the potential of data usage in improving treatments was recognised, practical collaboration required a lot of learning and new mindset. In the early stages of the project, much was required in terms of legal aspects, such as contractual and patient data usage issues.

 

Unique results and pioneering work

 

Anja Kajanne highlights the uniqueness of the algorithms developed under the leadership of HUS Chief Physician Mikko Seppänen in the Rare Diseases Diagnostics project in utilising data. The economic savings and improved quality of life for patients are illustrated by the fact that diagnosing a rare disease could previously take up to 10 years, but with the new algorithm, the diagnosis can be found much faster by means of data mining. The use of prospective data was initially slowed down by the interpretation of the secondary use of health data law, which prevented contacting the patient even if a disease was found based on the data.

 

Data harmonisation played an important role in the eCare for Me project. Harmonised data is a prerequisite for collaboration when mining disease-related data between different hospitals and other organizations. As a result of pioneering work led by HUS Chief Physician Kimmo Porkka, the OMOP data model chosen for HUS is widely used in other academic hospitals in Finland and globally. This is of great importance for multi-centre research work, as the data to be studied is in the same format and immediately available, saving time and resources. In the Acute Leukemia project, a lot of time was spent on data harmonisation, and the OMOP model used has been scaled to cover other diseases as well. One clinical application of the OMOP data model is the Tumor Board application co-developed with Tietoevry, which automates and enhances cancer patient diagnostics, treatment selection and guidance. The system generates significant cost savings in drug expenses and improves the quality of cancer care at HUS. Since it is based on a common clinical data model (OMOP), it can be easily adopted in other hospitals using the same data model.

 

The Home Dialysis project, led by HUS Nephrologist Virpi Rauta, is progressing from the development phase to practical implementation. It is also significant that the comprehensive remote care solution has progressed to the first commercialization agreement. As a result, partner Fujitsu will sell the home dialysis product, generating revenue for HUS in the form of royalties. This is a significant step forward for the CHN entire ecosystem.

 

Lessons learned

 

Anja Kajanne concludes: "eCare for Me was a massive and prolonged project, but the results obtained now and in the future are worth all the work. They have a significant economic and individual impact. During the project, all parties involved have also learned a lot about co-development. Over the years, processes have been refined and lessons documented – this will greatly benefit future collaboration projects."

 

Collaborative projects enabled by the CleverHealth Network and similar initiatives will continue in the new innovation unit at HUS. The unit will take its final form at the turn of the year 2024. This demonstrates a commitment to innovation, ecosystems and business collaboration.