Health Capital Helsinki compiled a list of Finnish health tech startups and companies with innovative solutions in the battle against Covid-19. The article is updated with new information as it reaches us.
Abacus Diagnostica has delivered the first tests identifying the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus to its customers in Finland and abroad. The test is performed with Abacus’ own automated GenomEra® CDX system, which is used in a large number of Finnish university and central hospital laboratories.
ArcDia International will soon launch a fast and cost-effective point-of-care test for mariPOC® test system to detect Covid-19 infection caused by coronavirus. ArcDia’s test works from the early onset of the symptoms and is suitable for high-capacity testing.
Mobidiag is offering a fast, easy-to-use test for coronavirus: test in 15 minutes, shipping and storage at room temperature. In addition, the company is developing two complementary molecular tests for rapid diagnostics of coronavirus infection.
iSTOC offers rapid tests that can detect antibodies for different infectious diseases, like Covid-19, from a small drop of blood, and a mobile diagnostics solution for analysing the test results and geographical mapping the spread of infectious diseases. The tests can be done with no physical contact between the care personnel and the person who’s being tested.
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..
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. Right now, the company helps its customers to ensure the continuity of Covid-19 test manufacturing.
Screentec has developed a new product, the Screentec Visor, covering fully the user’s face. The Visor is aimed at hospitals and care organisations.
Woimet’s AirCide Spray is a biological desinfecting (desinfectant) protective coating for soft and hard surfaces. Destroys viruses, bacteria, and mold. The spray prevents growth of these pathogens on for example face masks, door handles, handrails, dining tables, reducing the risk to get infected.
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. After passing the tests the equipment can be used in hospitals.
Finnadvance has put its 3D printers to work and is providing face-shields (see photo above) of FDA authorized designs for production of protective face shields outside of the normal clearance pathway during the Covid-19 pandemic. The face shields are available for clinical workers for free of charge from Finnadvance. The company has also expanded its organ-on-chip portfolio to lung-on-chip and upper-airway-on-chip for studying SARS-CoV-2 uptake and transmission studies.
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, and support for bots and automated pre-screenings. It is fast to deploy and adjustable to customer’s look & feel. Read more: Covid-19 created a boom for Ninchat
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 to websites to answer customers’ questions.
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 personalized and consumers can be segmented and directed into right care paths. Etsimo’s solution is helping healthcare in Brazil to cope with Covid-19.
Near Real solution allows for secure and high-quality remote consultation. The solution includes audio, video, screen sharing and chat functionalities.
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 those 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. Vivago solution is also a nurse call system.
Medixine’s solution Medixine Suite can help by allowing for efficient population screening and treatment follow-up remotely, without risking transmission of the disease to healthcare professionals or other people.
Kaiku Health is a digital therapeutics platform for cancer care. Together with its partner hospital The Geneva University Hospitals (HUG) Kaiku Health has developed a COVID-19 symptom monitoring service to remotely recognize patients in need of hospitalisation. The service is currently in active use at HUG.
Buddy Healthcare has launched a COVID-19 mobile app: 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
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.
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.
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.
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.
Olwel platform is providing remote-monitoring, telemedicine and counselling to the Covid-19 suspected and quarantined people and facilitating to isolate the infected people or refer to the right hospital at the right time.
Movendos is focusing on remote solutions in healthcare, social care, rehabilitation and therapy. Movendos Health Platform enables selected easy to use services related to need- and symptom-based time reservation, data collection, surveys, reporting, remote appointments, chat and messaging. The solution enables access to right care at the right time and gives professionals fluent daily tools, being it traditional reactive sick care or emerging preventive care.
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.
MUMO is a secure communication platform that is 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.
Aiforia is a first-in-class, versatile cloud-based platform that increases the speed, accuracy and consistency of analysing large and complex medical images. The company’s deep learning AI can be deployed easily to analyse any feature or pattern (i.e. lung lesions, hyaline membranes, inflammatory cell infiltrate, and more) in a matter of seconds.
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.
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. Popit already has partners for the new product and is kicking off with first studies. The company wants to contribute and offers the tools free of charge to the first partners who sign up.
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.
Xfold Imaging produces microscope slides containing advanced nanostructures on the top surface. These nanostructures enhance fluorescence microscope images and enable to visualize 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.
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.
Cardiolyse is a cloud ECG & HRV analytics platform for real-time remote heart health monitoring and detection. Within the in-hospital care Cardiolyse cardiac analytics cloud platform can enable the patient’s QTc monitoring and analysis to detect the potentially life-threatening QT prolongation effect of some Covid-19 treating medications.
Monidor’s Monidrop (see photo above) 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 minimizes unnecessary visits to patient rooms.
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. In addition, the company offers Ascom MINI, a wireless and easy to use nurse call system. It is supplied pre-programmed and designed to adapt to the rapidly changing care needs. The compact solution shows the location of the patient alarm with clear text and sound, showing the care needs outside the patient room.
With the Medanets app, a nurse can retrieve patient EMR/EHR data, manage bedside documentation and access evidence-based practice via mobile device. The solution enables safe, effective and more hygienic information flow.
Hygga is offering a solution for real-time resource allocation for public and private healthcare units. The smart model is built around Hygga Flow ERP system. Real-time resource management allows, for example, optimising operations so that the staff and patients can avoid unnecessary contact and stay healthy.
Klinik Healthcare Solutions is a healthcare technology company delivering AI-based solutions for intelligent patient flow management. Their flagship solution Klinik Access, which is used by over 400 healthcare units in Finland, UK and Portugal, now features specific Covid-19-tool with intelligent symptom checking and risk level evaluation. Its 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 during the crisis. The company has kicked off a campaign to support hospitals with its web and mobile tools to guide patients to appropriate hospital entrances and reception areas.
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.
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. To contribute and make monitoring of chronic lung disease and collaboration between the patient and healthcare professionals easier even remotely, the company now offers their CE marked self-management service free of charge for users in 18 European countries.
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.
TrueMed detects counterfeit Covid-19 related products and medicines – optically. It is based on AI & machine vision. End-users use it with their existing normal mobile phones. Read more: TrueMed uses AI to fight counterfeits
Mectalent Medical Services offers support in getting products (Medical devices, IVD solutions, PPE, e.g. different types of masks, respirators, or visors, as well as SARS-CoV-2tests) available in the market. The company can help to apply the current Covid-19 adapted requirements and relevant standards to each product, or it can assist in compiling technical documentation or building a suitable quality system for the product in order to obtain CE certification or other registrations worldwide.
FinnHELP is an online service to fill out the gaps in emergency response and healthcare personnel during the corona crisis in Finland. The idea got started at the Hack the Crisis Finland event and was launched just 10 days later. The web app is free for all parties and the run by the non-profit ER personnel association, Finn’EM.
Corona-Help.UK is a website-based, anonymous chatbot asking questions about citizens’ experiences with coronavirus. The chatbot, created by Leadoo Marketing Technologies, is the only NHS-assessed and -approved Covid-19 self-reporting system in use today. The system is designed to provide real-time data for medical researchers and decisionmakers in the UK and later globally through anonymous and end-to-end encrypted ‘self-reporting’ using proven digital marketing technologies.
Secapp is a SAAS platform used to send out millions of emergency alerts and mass notifications by critical organisations every year. Secapp helps save lives by reaching vital professionals in a significantly faster and more secure way than e.g. communications channels designed for consumers. In addition, Secapp can collect and report critical information such as the amount of outbreak patients per region, the total capacity and the number of patients in ICU, the adequacy of personnel and protective gear.
Lean Entries is testing Corona Guide demo created on the company’s platform, the Entries. The aim would be to provide quick, exact and actionable information for every citizen regarding the epidemic potentially slowing down the epidemic and decreasing the spread of false information. The authorities could also harness Entries to collect statistics.
Mynavigo is a dynamic web application for preventive customer guidance all the way from individual’s functional performance self-assessment to remote care service. By using mynavigo, individuals can easily assess their daily abilities, get guidance on lifestyle changes while also consider the need for everyday support from social welfare and health care providers. During the Covid-19 pandemic, for example, elderly people can be offered support for loneliness, anxiety, and depression.
The Healthzilla app helps consumers to track their stress and habits data automatically. One of its core features is the fingertip stress scan which can be used in case no wearable device is available. In just 60 secs it measures the blood volume changes in the capillary veins of a person’s fingertip. Then a science-based A.I. algorithm finds anomalies and patterns in this data to determine if the person’s state is normal or potentially sick. The solution is unique, scalable, and affordable for gathering biometric signals about health without a separate wearable device. Healthzilla is currently looking for partners to help validate and leverage the technology to battle the spread of the Covid-19 virus and other future epidemics.
Working life is under a serious attack by the Covid-19 pandemic. Sweetsbot’s platform allows employees tell anonymously how they feel, and offers employers a way to listen to what is going on in the company. Sweetsbot has opened the platform to be used free of charge until the end of May.
Emooter is an app (see photo above) that helps tracking and improving mental wellbeing at work. Answering a couple of meaningful questions a week, you receive instant feedback and personalised suggestions to improve your mental health. The app provides science-based and scalable support with stress and anxiety caused by, for example, Covid-19 and its aftermath.
Oura is sponsoring research at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) to study whether physiological data collected by the Oura ring, combined with responses to daily symptom surveys, can predict illness symptoms. The study aims to build an algorithm to help UCSF identify patterns of onset, progression, and recovery, for Covid-19. The UCSF TemPredict study will include two groups: front-line healthcare workers and the general population.
Delicode has turned one of the basic features of its Signals computer vision people sensing and tracking service – the capability to count incoming traffic – in to a coronavirus risk estimator for retail customers. With Signals devices at store entry points, by entering values for the max allowance and an estimate of the average dwell time in the store, the manager will have an estimate of the amount of people in the store, how many people can still enter the store safely or when the next window to enter the store will be. Resulting data is offered as embeddable HTML5 widgets and push messages to employees’ mobile devices.
Metabar develops smart washing technologies, applications, products and services. The company has technology solution for public hygiene and now collaboration projects especially to fight against Covid-19 pandemic with new innovative smart stand alone disinfection dispenser concepts.
Nolla Antimicrobial is launching a hand sanitizer that applies a new silver polymer technology. The technology is a result of more than 20 years of research and development. It has been shown to kill five of the most dangerous superbugs as defined by the WHO as well as, according to preliminary studies, being effective against coronaviruses. Nolla’s hand sanitizer foam provides a longer-lasting, gentler and more effective protection than alcohol-based hand sanitizers.
Twelve Textiles produces cotton face masks for non-medical/non-clinical use. For every mask sold, the company donates 10 surgical face masks for providers of critical services.
Award-winning baby-clothes maker Beibamboo is now producing their own face masks. The material is soft bamboo-organic cotton, and the masks are washable in 90’C. Extra rubber-loops are provided, and are easily changed. The masks have a bendy metal piece at the nose bridge for a close fit, and also has an opening for an additional filter (not provided).
The list has been updated 27 May, 2020.
Please contact Health Capital Helsinki Business Advisor Lauri Kuronen, lauri.kuronen@healthcapitalhelsinki.fi, tel. +358 40 575 1847:
For more information about solutions and interview requests, please contact the companies directly.
