Terkko Health Hub three years

Collaboration between researchers, healthcare and entrepreneurs is the key to socially significant healthcare innovations. Terkko Health Hub, a centre for startups by the University of Helsinki and HUS Helsinki University Hospital, marks its third anniversary this autumn. To mark the occasion, Terkko published an article about the collaborative culture in the Greater Helsinki region for creating significant health innovations.

When a healthcare research team or business comes up with an idea, a long path lies ahead. The route to adoption of a healthcare product is expensive, tightly regulated and has very many stages. Before it can be accepted for public use, it must undergo extensive studies in its operating environment to guarantee safety. Its financiers must be patient; they will generally have to wait for quite a while for a return on their investment.  At the same time, there is a significant need for new innovations in healthcare. New equipment can free up the skills of nursing staff for work that machines cannot perform, such as the humane encountering of patients and finding creative solutions. Patient safety can also improve as new, properly studied and tested equipment comes into the market.The key to creating health and life science innovations is to get representatives of the different fields around the same table. Terkko Health Hub has been operating in the modernized Meilahti Campus Library building since autumn 2017. It combines three worlds that are traditionally separate from one another – business, healthcare and research. Today the health and life science hub leases rooms and desks to 45 companies and also supports their growth by arranging training, events and mentored networking opportunities. It is a place where 200 events of every sort take place each year. In autumn 2020, Terkko Health Hub’s operations were complemented by Health Incubator Helsinki, a unique three-year incubator program for research-driven teams and startups in the health and life science sectors. The program is a joint project of the City of Helsinki and the University of Helsinki. It aims to transform health innovation, research findings and skills into commercial products and international business.Terkko Health Hub offers comprehensive assistance and consultation for companies at various stages, and also brings corporate partners into the community. The agile and innovative work style of startups coupled with the structured and professional attitude of corporates creates a perfect collaboration benefiting both parties. “Terkko Health Hub is a key operator in the greater Helsinki health start up community. Terkko is providing homebase and support for many of the most promising health start ups, and the vibrant community and education programs like Health Talks are very valuable. Health Capital Helsinki wishes happy third birthday to Terkko and is looking forward to continue the excellent collaboration to drive health startup success in Greater Helsinki and Finland,” says Juha Paakkola, Director of Health Capital Helsinki.

The future is shaped by combining expertise and information-sharing

 Technology Officer Pekka Kahri, responsible for public-private coordination at HUS Helsinki University Hospital, sees major potential in collaboration. “We seek to work with all the most promising health technology start-ups that offer interesting solutions for relevant problems of patient care or clinical needs. Collaboration is founded on a clinical pilot study, in which the hospital units interested and the specialists concerned play a key role.”The future will be shaped by combining different fields of expertise and sharing information, says Professor Olli Silvennoinen, director of the Helsinki Institute of Life Science HiLIFE.“It is the positive duty of every researcher to utilise research findings,” he believes. “The path from a laboratory result to a product or information that benefits patients and society demands special high-quality expertise. The systematic development of these operations is vitally important now and will be in the future.”Read the full article on Terkko websitePhotos: Terkko Health Hub

The key to creating health and life science innovations is to get representatives of the different fields around the same table.

Health Capital Helsinki