Virtual wards to digital feedback: the Nordic approach to post-pandemic healthcare

Thursday at 02:18 PM

Covid-19 changed the global landscape of healthcare, with institutions around the world realising the need for more advanced digital intervention that would enable remote care.

For many, this represented a dramatic transformation almost overnight, forcing often-rushed investments and structural shifts. Meanwhile, in the Nordics, a host of startups had already been planning for such a shift years before, with or without this black swan event.

From the region’s perspective, solutions around artificial intelligence (AI), data, virtual wards, remote monitoring, digital feedback and personalised wellbeing management were already seen as the next generation of healthcare. As such, Nordic innovators were largely tasked with transforming the world’s health sector during the pandemic storm, and with maintaining that momentum ever since.

“The digital health market is estimated to be growing at an annual growth rate of around 25% from 2019 to 2025,” said Martin Ratz, co-founder of Swedish-born Doccla, a virtual ward provider in Europe and to the UK’s NHS.

“Health systems across the Western world face a critical challenge. With an ageing population leading to more chronic illnesses and hospital admissions, coupled with the massive post-pandemic backlog, substantial resources are needed to maintain adequate and safe service levels.

“There has been an acknowledgement that we must rethink our approach to healthcare and embrace a system-wide philosophical change, focusing on preventative, continuous care enabled by technology across the acuity spectrum.”

Espen Janson, CEO and co-founder of Stockholm-based, Napper offers an initial reason as to why the Nordics are the region to enable this movement: “The Nordics emphasise collaboration, trust in technology, and have a strong social safety net, which are conducive to the adoption of digital health solutions.

“Governments in Nordic countries prioritise public health and wellbeing, investing in healthcare infrastructure and supporting initiatives that enhance patient outcomes. Moreover, the region’s emphasis on transparency, data privacy and patient empowerment serves as a model for global standards in healthcare innovation. It really is a holistic approach to healthcare innovation that ensures accessibility to all.”

Covid chaos

Doccla was formed in 2019, demonstrating foresight of healthcare’s need for a digital transformation with or without the Covid 19 impact.

“It was thought up after I suffered a heart attack and was sent home prematurely, without adequate aftercare,” Ratz said. “It made me realise the need for remote technology that could enable patients like me to recover at home with hospital-level care.”

The virtual ward model was born as a result, beginning with a solution that could remotely monitor heart patients. The roll-out coincided with the start of the pandemic, however.

Ratz added: “We were ready to recruit our first patient in February 2020 when the pandemic hit, putting all non-essential research, like ours, on pause. In a matter of days, we partnered with the hospital hosting our study to launch a virtual ward and began monitoring Covid-19 patients instead.”

Patients were able to receive hospital level care in their home comforts, uninterrupted, while clinicians found a much better work-life balance even among the 2020 chaos. As a silver lining, that period shone light on a need for innovation that already existed in healthcare.

“The pandemic has undoubtedly sped up the adoption of digital technologies,” Ratz said. “Many digital technologies had been around for years, but there had been little pressure to adopt them. What might have taken years to implement was fast-tracked to a matter of months. The digital solutions that were implemented were a strategic response to an unprecedented time.”

Accessible, personalised care

Napper was another Swedish startup initiated in 2019, just before the crisis. The company experienced a similar propulsion into mainstream healthcare because of the pandemic, albeit slightly more indirectly.

In Napper’s case, Janson and his team benefitted from people’s sudden exposure to healthcare-based apps, devices and solutions. A new culture was forming where general wellbeing and health could be channelled through solutions such as Napper.

Janson said: “Napper combines cutting-edge technology with empathy and behavioural psychology to solve age-old parental challenges. This includes reducing stresses and exhaustion experienced by new parents to contribute to healthier and happier families.

“Our first product, the Napper App, was an AI-driven sleep coach to support parents in creating effective and sustainable sleep routines for newborns, infants and toddlers. It helps around 200,000 monthly users to combat ‘parental insomnia’ and claw back some of the estimated 133 lost nights of sleep experienced during a baby’s first year.”

Telehealth and remote monitoring devices are now commonplace in the fitness, wellbeing and mental health space, but it took the pandemic, people’s changing attitudes towards healthtech, and companies ready and waiting to fill that gap to confirm the shift.

“The need for accessible, personalised care that can effectively address the diverse needs of individuals is probably the biggest challenge for healthcare,” Janson added. “Digital innovation, particularly through AI-driven solutions, can help to solve this by providing tailored recommendations and insights based on individual data. This can improve patient outcomes, streamline healthcare delivery, and reduce the burden on healthcare professionals.”

Dynamic feedback

Janson’s nod towards data and the impact on healthcare professionals shouldn’t be forgotten in the medtech conversation. The default emphasis is understandably placed on improving patient outcomes, but sparking a more satisfied, less underworked, and more informed workforce is a huge part of that.

“Today, tools such as healthcare bots, virtual chats and remote consultations are integral to the healthcare experience. The change has been remarkable,” said Miika Mäkitalo, CEO of Finnish company HappyOrNot, whose ‘smile’-based customer feedback devices have become familiar in 135 countries across numerous consumer settings.

“The pandemic really tested us, but we helped hospitals stay connected with their patients. We adapted swiftly and released the Smiley Link, a tool to provide patients with a touchless option where users could leave feedback by quickly scanning a QR code or entering a URL.”

The predictive customer experience tool has since been critical for institutions to analyse feedback data, while also channelling that feedback towards facility improvements.

Mäkitalo added: “By integrating digital tools such as feedback systems, hospitals can actively collect patient data in real-time and swiftly analyse these insights. This creates an ongoing and dynamic feedback loop between patient and provider, allowing managers easy, efficient access to patient analytics. Adopting this approach to real-time data profoundly impacts the entire patient experience in the hospital facility.”

Progressive and collaborative

As much as $10.6m was invested in the Scandinavian healthtech sector in 2022 alone, according to Dealroom. In Sweden, 99% of all prescriptions are now issued electronically.

The region’s determination to transform the healthcare sector and remedy its many administrative and patient-based bottlenecks started long before the pandemic and is still gaining speed.

“The culture is characterised by a collaborative and patient-centric approach, where different sectors work together to foster innovation,” said Ratz. “This includes substantial investments into research and developmet and supportive regulatory environments that allow for the testing and implementation of new technologies.

“The Nordic healthcare model is all about a social safety net, ensuring everyone is taken care of and is able to receive access to high-quality healthcare. Industry reforms in general are less politically divisive in Scandinavia, allowing for more experimentation and improvement.”

Mäkitalo agrees with this cultural and structural differentiation: “In the Nordics, healthcare technology is generally perceived in a positive manner, and is valued by both healthcare professionals and patients.

“The region has embraced digitisation, and is now poised not only to lead in the development of these innovations, but also to set a benchmark for how healthcare systems and personnel can effectively integrate and benefit from technological advancements.”

High levels of digital literacy and a conducive infrastructure to introduce new ways of working further contribute to the Nordics’ ongoing push for innovative technologies in the global healthcare ecosystem.

As such, the region is an exemplar for what can be achieved when public and private entities collaborate, and when the hunger for better outcomes outpaces the resistance to change.

Janson concluded: “In Nordic healthcare, the culture towards technology is characterised by its progressive and collaborative nature. We prioritise patient-centric care and efficiency, driving healthcare providers to explore and implement solutions like telemedicine, electronic health records and AI-driven applications.

“This culture fosters a collaborative ecosystem where stakeholders, including startups like Napper, can innovate with confidence, knowing there is a supportive environment for digital health initiatives to thrive and positively impact both healthcare delivery and patient experiences.”

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