Nordic Innovation is pushing the boundaries of Nordic collaboration within health innovation. The development of an ethical AI solution that can read Nordic patient records and a project investigating the innovation potential in the unstructured part of patient records are among the new initiatives presented under Nordic Innovation's health program.
A welfare system under pressure
The Nordic welfare system is under pressure. Demographical changes with aging populations and increasing amounts of chronic illnesses and mental health issues are contributing to a healthcare system which is not financially sustainable. According to the report “Business Case for Sharing of Nordic Health Data”, the total healthcare spending in the Nordics will exceed 136 billion Euro in 2040 if we continue on the same track.
At the same time, Nordic Innovation has set a vision that the Nordic region will be the most sustainable and integrated health region in the world, providing the best possible personalized healthcare for all its citizens by 2030.
Sharing of health data is key
A key element for the 2030 Health Vision is sharing and utilization of health data across Nordic borders.
“We believe there is a huge potential in sharing and utilization of health data across the Nordics. Sharing across the Nordics is necessary to have enough data to find solutions to more specialized healthcare challenges. At the same time, there is an enormous innovation potential hidden in unstructured patient data,” says Rasmus Malmborg, Head of Program at Nordic Innovation.
“Unstructured patient data are the written comments and free text in patient records,” he adds.
In a panel discussion during the Danish democracy festival “Folkemødet”, Nordic Innovation turned the spotlight on sharing of health data across the Nordics through health apps. There was a general agreement that we need a system that can support the development and certification of Nordic health apps, while at the same time making it attractive for safe international apps to be present in the Nordic market.
“Everyone is using health apps in one way or the other without knowing if they are safe or not. Guiding the Nordics toward safe, approved solutions, also within preventative care, turns the citizens into valuable resources not only patients. However, unlocking the potential of digital health across the Nordics goes beyond just setting a standard. It requires establishing a solid system that simultaneously evaluates, distributes and activates safe health apps,” says Anders Tunold-Hanssen, CEO and Project Manager, Nordic Interoperability Project and NordDEC.
“By embracing cross-Nordic solutions, we not only secure control over our data but also empower citizens to actively participate in shaping our healthcare system,” he continues.
Sharing of health data is also a key element in a new project that seeks to discover the innovation potential in data from Nordic patient records. The project “FederatedHealth: A Nordic Federated Health Data Network”, is to demonstrate a concrete solution utilizing data from patient records across the Nordic countries in solving healthcare challenges.
“The Nordics have some of the best quality health data in the world, but it is being utilized far too little. Part of the reason is that the unstructured part of patient records has not been used systematically for innovation purposes. We believe that the potential in the unstructured data is very big, and we look forward to getting a better understanding of the innovation potential in this type of data,” says Rasmus Malmborg.
Nordic Health App competition – winner to be announced in August
To push forward the development of health apps in the Nordics, Nordic Innovation supports a Nordic health app competition where an evaluation panel will select the best five Nordic health apps. The companies behind the apps win support to ensure that their app can get a Nordic certification and will get certified using the Nordic Digital Health Evaluation Criteria (NordDEC).
Among the five Nordic health apps, one winner will be selected. The winner will get the opportunity to pitch the solution during the political festival in Norway, 15 August at 13.45.
An ethical AI solution to read Nordic patient records
Efficiency, Ethics and Digitalization are key words in the newest health project supported by Nordic Innovation. The aim of the project: "Applied Ethical AI on Nordic Patient Records" is to develop an ethical AI algorithm that is capable of reading the unstructured data from patient records across medical health record systems and across Nordic borders and Nordic languages.
The project will help to increase efficiency in health data utilization and ensure that it happens in an ethical way:
“To have an ethical AI solution that can read unstructured data from patient records across Nordic languages and multiple systems will increase efficiency in Nordic health data utilization and show how to use AI in a responsible way,” says Rasmus Malmborg.
Clara Foged Andersen, Project Manager from 2021.AI, presented the project during Nordic Innovations panel discussion at “Folkemødet”:
“The ultimate goal of the project is to enable a new way to train AI models using sensitive data from different sources in different countries, and to ensure that this solution can be scaled up legally and commercially at a Nordic level,” says Clara Andersen.
New projects under Nordics Innovation's health program
The best five Nordic Health apps
FederatedHealth: A Nordic Federated Health Data Network
Applied Ethical AI on Nordic Patient Records
