Finnish companies with innovative health tech solutions to COVID-19

Diagnostics and test manufacturing

Abacus Diagnostica offers rapid and easy-to-use solutions for COVID-19 diagnostics. The SARS-CoV-2 assay portfolio consists of two CE-marked tests, the SARS-CoV-2 Assay and the SARS-CoV-2, Flu A/B + RSV Assay, for the automated GenomEra® CDX system. Additionally, Abacus has a research use test for detection of the SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern strains. The tests are used by laboratories in 20+ countries, including the majority of university and central hospital laboratories in Finland. (Updated in June 2021)

ArcDia International provides CE marked products for rapid antigen testing of COVID-19. The mariPOC® COVID-19 tests are widely used globally in decentralised testing and laboratory testing as well as in occupational surveillance. In the spring of 2021, the company launched a range of exceptionally sensitive point-of-care rapid tests for COVID-19. (Updated in June 2021)

Ginolis provides automated manufacturing equipment for the production and processing of diagnostic devices, such as rapid tests, point-of-care, microfluidic devices, diagnostics, test cartridges and IVD tests. The company helps its customers to ensure the continuity of COVID-19 test manufacturing.

iSTOC is offering a high-end mobile application capturing data from rapid diagnostic tests, and secure cloud service and analytics platform. This enables a versatile management of disease surveillance and patient data with instant feedback to the user. iSTOC service can be utilised by governments, NGOs, corporates and private sector entities in crisis management, for example related to COVID-19 pandemic both in screening of general population and identifying infected individuals, and issuing “COVID-19 passports”. (Updated in June 2021)

Mobidiag develops and markets molecular diagnostics for Gastrointestinal, Healthcare Associated and Respiratory Infections, as well as Antimicrobial Resistance Management. The company aims at providing a global solution to clinicians suited for their own laboratory needs and capacities. During the COVID-19 crisis, Mobidiag has harnessed their existing technologies to rapidly provide coronavirus diagnostic tests based on proprietary platforms Amplidiag® Easy (for batch testing) and Novodiag® (for on-demand testing). (Updated in June 2021)

Salofa manufactures a COVID-19 rapid test that also detects asymptomatic carriers. The tests are for professional use.

Tezted has developed SARSPLEX, a unique multiplex antibody test that measures IgM, IgG, and IgA immune responses to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The test is an enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) that is CE and IVD marked for professional use only.

Screening tools

Etsimo’s CE-marked medical device is an AI driven solution based on demographic information, symptoms and risk factors and it helps in guiding patients to the right care at the right time with the right information. The company’s COVID-19 version is being built on the same technology. The solution is able to give probabilities on COVID-19 and other respiratory infections. This means that it is able to grade suspicions of the virus and also estimate other possible reasons, i.e. diseases for the symptoms. This provides peace of mind to the consumer while giving the opportunity to triage them to non-COVID-19 care and thus offloading coronavirus related services. Triaging is personalised and consumers can be segmented and directed into right care paths. Etsimo’s solution is helping healthcare in Brazil to cope with COVID-19.

Innokas Medical offers COVID-19 analysis of patients: symptom description, disease tracing, comparison with Swedish and US care organisations. The company also provides care-at-home allowing monitored care for coronavirus risk groups.

Medixine’s solution Medixine Suite allows for efficient population screening and treatment follow-up remotely, without risking transmission of the disease to healthcare professionals or other people.

Vivago is a unique safety and wellbeing solution enabling preventive measures, safety alarms and more customer centric care. Vivago provides real-time data detecting and monitoring symptoms of a disease, like COVID-19, and helps to focus treatment on patients who most need it. Real-time data gives more time for care and helps to allocate treatment resources and assessment of acute care needs. Read how customers are using Vivago solution in their daily care. (Updated in June 2021)

Remote monitoring

Ascom’s Healthcare Platform collects critical patient data from medical devices in order to make informed decisions in an acute environment. Medical device alarms and patient parameters are transferred directly to the responsible nurse’s smart device and automatically saved into the EHR. Observing vitals and other medical devices allows staff to make clinical decisions without entering the patient room. During the past year, the pandemic was fought with Ascom Digistat® Wearables solution at Slingeland hospital in the Netherlands and in Naples, Italy. In Slingeland the Wearables solution was used for continuous monitoring of isolated COVID-19 patients. In Naples Wearables solution was used for remote monitoring of the  domiciled COVID-19 patients. (Updated in June 2021)

Benete’s Life Analytics platform offers two services: remote training and heart failure management. Remote training solution can help in the prevention of muscle deterioration caused by the lack of activity and exercise, especially for the senior population. The service remotely supports home exercise and provides real-time information to the professionals. Heart failure management solution enables remote patient monitoring for a timely response to symptom aggravation, thus decreasing the need for emergency hospitalisations.

Cardiolyse provides a cloud-based ECG & HRV analytics platform. It enables remote heart health monitoring and personalised reports for patients and caregivers. Medical grade CE-marked algorithms allow detecting most popular arrhythmias and heart health conditions up to 2 months in advance. On top of that, added with stress, emotion, and fatigue risks. The platform allows hospitals and pharma companies to remotely monitor the risks of different patient groups (chronic, post-discharge, COVID-19). (Updated in June 2021)

Nukute sleep apnea screening and diagnostics solution can be applied to remote monitoring of COVID-19 patients. Hospitals can in real time track the biosignals such as breathing, pulse and oxygen saturation of the patients when they are recovering from the infection at home. In case the Acute Respitory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) develops, the patient can be called into the hospital at the right time.

Predicell‘s remote monitoring service provides real-time situation picture of the patient’s condition, based on location data and the patient’s own or government-provided wearables, including cardiac sensors, bed sensor and intelligent body thermometer. The solution enables healthcare professionals to monitor change in the patient’s condition and take action based on suggestions generated by Predicell’s AI-engine.

SOENIA Medical Diary and Cloud is a secure remote monitoring system suitable for tracking symptoms of neurological diseases and conditions. SOENIA Medical Diary is a CE-marked medical device that reduces the time spent by nurses and doctors on calls, visits and in logging symptom data. With real-time data clinical visits can be prioritised, postponed or converted to a remote phone consultation.

Digital care platforms

Buddy Healthcare’s COVID-19 app is a virtual care platform for symptom tracking, remote monitoring, data collection and secure communication. Hospitals can assign the mobile app to the individuals/patients with either mild symptoms or diagnosed infections without symptoms. Read more: Buddy Healthcare aims at 5-star patient experience (Updated in June 2021)

Kaiku Health is a digital therapeutics platform for cancer care. It enables digital patient-reported outcome monitoring and intelligent symptom tracking, real-world data for clinicians and seamless care experience for patients. Kaiku Health is a part of Elekta. (Updated in June 2021)

Remote care solutions

With the Medanets app, a nurse can retrieve patient EMR/EHR data, manage bedside documentation and access evidence-based practice via a mobile device at the point of care. The solution enables safe, effective and more hygienic information flow. The app is currently used in more than 50 hospitals and primary health care units in Finland, Sweden, and Norway. (Updated in June 2021)

MedicubeX is developing a self-check station with several disruptive health measurements and remote appointment technology. Cutting-edge light sterilisation technology keeps the station clear of microbes and viruses, including the COVID-19 causing SARS-CoV-2. The self-check station allows the measurement of vital signs and risk factors enabling enhanced remote appointments, which helps maintain social distancing. MedicubeX is working closely with the University of Helsinki and international partners on the implementation of UV-C based sterilisation technology. Read more: MedicubX brings healthcare to you – via automation

Monidor’s Monidrop is a small, easy-to-use tool to help nurses with accurate intravenous (IV) fluid therapy. It secures accurate IV therapy even when there is a shortage of pumps on the hospital wards, as there has been during the COVID-19 pandemic. The device frees up nurses’ time and remote monitoring minimises unnecessary visits to patient rooms.

Movendos is a company focusing on digital and remote healthcare solutions. The digital solutions enable access to care and improving health from any location. Movendos Health Platform enables selected easy to use services related to need- and symptom-based time reservation, remote appointments, chat and non-urgent messaging, data collection, surveys and reporting. The solution enables easy access to right care at the right time and gives professionals fluent daily tools, being it traditional reactive sick care or emerging preventive care. In Finland, more than 100 service providers trust Movendos services. (Updated in June 2021)

Remote communications platforms

HealthFOX COVID-19 CARE application is a secure remote communication solution ensuring high-quality outpatient care. The app supports citizens to make a self-assessment of possible virus infection and determine the need for care as well as monitors the impact of care and reports it to healthcare professionals.

MUMO is a secure communication platform designed especially to the healthcare and homecare sectors. The service is already widely used in hospitals, care homes and companies operating within the medical and healthcare sectors. MUMO is a KELA (The Finnish Social Insurance Institution) approved and recommended provider of services.

M24Connect platform has been developed in collaboration with healthcare professionals and administration. Independent from other systems, M24Connect is a complete solution for healthcare organisations that want to complement their physical practice with a virtual one.

Near Real solution allows for secure and high-quality remote consultation. The solution includes audio, video, screen sharing and chat functionalities.

Ninchat is a secure messaging platform that supports chat and video communication between healthcare providers and their patients. The product includes one-to-one messaging, group messaging, internal team messaging, support for bots and automated pre-screenings, and suomi.fi strong identification. It is fast to deploy and adjustable to customer’s look & feel. Read more: COVID-19 created a boom for Ninchat (Updated in June 2021)

Olwel Digital Hospital is providing treatment, counselling and monitoring for both COVID and non-COVID patients through audio/video consultation and home visit. A specialist doctor joins the home visit doctor over video if the patient needs specialist consultation. Olwel platform supports two-way follow-up mechanism with patient data at doctors’ fingertips to monitor patients’ progress and referral to the right hospital at the right time (if necessary). (Updated in June 2021)

VideoVisit offers a complete remote care platform with all necessary tools for social- and healthcare service providers for care beyond hospital walls, and also for communication between patients in service homes and their family. In co-operation with GetJenny, the company has also created a coronavirus chatbot that can be linked with websites to answer customers’ questions.

9Solutions is a leading provider of indoor location-based safety, communications and smart care solutions. Nurse Call Lite is a Plug&Play nurse call system with voice connection designed for the acute and temporary needs of hospitals and care homes. Voice communication enables the patients to contact the nurses and vice versa and allows minimising physical contact with infectious patients. No external installation assistance is needed.

Coronavirus research and drug development

Aiforia is a first-in-class, versatile cloud-based software that increases the speed, accuracy and consistency of analysing large and complex medical images in medical research, drug development, and more. The company’s deep learning AI can be deployed easily to analyse any feature or pattern in a matter of seconds — for example lesions or inflammatory cell infiltrate in lung tissue caused by acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) such as in cases of coronavirus infection. Researchers at the Foundation for the Study of Inflammatory Disease in the US are using Aiforia’s software to advance their understanding of the virus while aiming to develop a novel, AI-powered method of detection. Read the interview with the Foundation’s Director, Dr. Mozayeni. (Updated in June 2021)

Faron Pharmaceuticals has been granted regulatory approval for the global Randomized, Embedded, Multifactorial Adaptive Platform Trial for Community-Acquired Pneumonia (REMAP-CAP) to study the effect of interferon beta-1a in COVID-19.

Rokote Laboratories Finland Ltd. is a Finnish academic spin-out working to develop and introduce to the markets a nasal spray vaccine against COVID. The vaccine is based on research carried out at the University of Helsinki and the University of Eastern Finland. (Updated in June 2021)

Imaging

Xfold Imaging produces microscope slides containing advanced nanostructures on the top surface. These nanostructures enhance fluorescence microscope images and enable to visualise the virus-cell structures and bio-molecules (fats, lipids, proteins, etc.) at enhanced accuracy and enables real-time video imaging of live virus-cells. The company is working in high-sensitivity immunofluorescence assay for COVID-19.

Research tools

Telehealth startup Popit has released a research extension called POPIT INSIGHTS™, providing unprecedented real-time data on how the medications being researched are taken. At the same time data quality is improved, since patients in the study take their medications more consistently thanks to Popit’s clinically validated adherence improvement impact. The new tool basically reduces missed pills and makes studies faster.

User interface for ventilators

Hospitalised COVID-19 patients need more ventilators fast and these ventilators need user interfaces. Siili Auto wanted to help and built a proof-of-concept of the user interface for a ventilator based on The Qt Company’s Qt for MCUs technology running on a microcontroller platform. The prototype source code is released for free to all ventilator manufacturers. Using a microcontroller and an established UI framework helps because it speeds up the time needed to design and deploy.

Resource and patient flow management, patient logistics and wayfinding

Hygga is a Finnish pioneer in digital solutions for healthcare with a solid 10-year history. Hygga is offering a solution for smoother real-time resource allocation for public and private dental and general healthcare units. The smart model is built around an ERP system, Hygga Flow, which increases control over functionality, makes operations smoother and more transparent with real-time data to support operations and continuous development. Hygga’s customer base includes businesses of various sizes operating on both private and public sectors in Finland, Sweden and in Central Europe. (Updated in June 2021)

Klinik Healthcare Solutions is a healthcare technology company delivering AI-based solutions for intelligent patient flow management. Their flagship solution Klinik Access used by over 400 healthcare units in Finland, UK and Portugal, now features a specific COVID-19-tool with intelligent symptom checking and risk level evaluation. The goal is to keep patients and professionals safe by directing patients to appropriate care based on their urgency whether it is self-care instructions, contact to the primary care unit or an emergency care. Klinik Access makes it possible to monitor real-time data and target healthcare resources more accurately.

Steerpath, a leading provider of digital wayfinding solutions, is helping hospitals with their operational comms and orientation of new temp staff. Steerpath Campus Guide for Hospitals is using the latest digital mapping and wayfinding technology to transform hospital facilities into interactive digital space. It is an easy to use mobile tool for searching, navigating, and working across the hospital campus – from the parking lot to the patient room.

Unitary Healthcare’s Uoma is a patient logistics system that connects all the professionals related to patient transfers and acts as a secure communication platform between organisations. During COVID-19 pandemic, Uoma has been updated with features enabling patient categorisation and transferring patients automatically to right ward.

Digital self-management tools

KAMU Health provides digital services for respiratory-illness care, making the collaboration between the user and healthcare professionals easier. KAMU Asthma is a predictive self-management service that provides reliable information on the asthmatic’s condition, self-care routine and asthma triggers, such as weather and air quality. The services thus benefits not only the asthmatic but also healthcare service providers, hospitals, insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies. Read more: KAMU Health helps people with asthma maximise symptom-free days

Addoz provides automated medication dispensers for COVID-19 patients and risk groups at home. Intelligent dispenser reminds the patient to take the medication on time and prevents medication misuse. Products ensures better adherence and safe remote care.

Counterfeit detection

TrueMed develops and delivers 100% non-additive method for product protection, counterfeit detection and traceability (in offline). The solution can authenticate COVID-19 related products and medicines fully optically. Patent-pending technology is based on AI and computer vision. End-users can utilise it with their existing mid-range smartphones. TrueMed is protecting patients, companies, societies and lawful funds. Read more: TrueMed uses AI to fight counterfeits (Updated in June 2021)

Testing and enhancing PPE

Measur offers accredited testing services for face masks (surgical face mask type I, type II and type IIR) according to EN 14683 and personal protective equipment (PPE) such as respirators (FFP2, FFP3) according to EN 149, medical visors according to EN 166-168 and protective clothing according to EN 14126 and EN 13795. The company also does tests and certificates for hand and surface disinfectants, antimicrobial surfaces and more. These tests have helped Measur grow a lot during the pandemic. (Updated in June 2021)

Woimet has developed AirCide, a 100% biological, disinfecting protective coating that destroys the coronavirus and other viruses, bacteria and molds. AirCide Clear is designed particularly for clear and hard surfaces, and AirCide Regular products for face and breathing masks, different fabrics and all other porous surfaces that want to be antimicrobially treated. (Updated in June 2021)

Medical device registrations

Labquality’s RA/QA expert team offers support in getting products available in the market. With vast expertise in registering medical devices, IVD solutions, PPE, and medical software, the company helps device manufacturers acquire CE markings and global regulatory approvals. Regarding COVID-19 products, Labquality can e.g. compile technical documentation or build a suitable quality system for different types of masks, respirators, or visors, as well as SARS-CoV-2 tests. (Updated in June 2021)

Critical communications