Sigma initiates close collaboration with Microsoft and NHI to develop digital health care service

Nordic Health Innovation (NHI), a company based in Storuman in northern Sweden, has initiated a close collaboration with Microsoft and Sigma IT Consulting to guarantee information management to and from care providers’ primary medical data and case note systems for the purpose of facilitating research and enhancing the efficiency of health and medical care by expanding the virtual health room.

“With the help of Microsoft’s cloud and productivity platform we are currently building our own flexible exchange which is being designed to integrate our information from NHI and the Rural Medicine Center with the Swedish hospital health care case notes system and the newly formed Swedish e-health account HälsaFörMig,” says Jonas Berggren, chairman of NHI.
Sigma is one of the Nordic region’s leading suppliers of innovative and efficient IT solutions for the Internet of Things and the cloud.

“We see e-health as a very exciting area for the Swedish healthcare and for Swedish citizens and we are proud to deliver innovative solutions that address the challenges that our healthcare faces. Sigma's cooperation with NHI and Microsoft are crucial for the changes in public and medical processes to become successful with new technical solutions.” says Bert-Ola Bångman, business manager at Sigma IT Consulting.

Benefits for society

“This collaboration with NHI and Microsoft is well in line with Sigma's vision - Expect a better tomorrow. Here, we can combine our extensive know-how in innovation, technology and the Internet of Things to generate direct benefits for society. Our Internet of Things platform, based on Microsoft technology, helps NHI to set up new virtual wards in a quick and controlled manner.” says David Österlindh, Director of the Internet of Things at Sigma IT Consulting.

This project is also fully in line with Microsoft’s ambition to innovate and renew the productivity and business processes of organisations,” says Mattias Ekman, business developer for health care at Microsoft.
The new service will be cloud-based and Microsoft’s servers are placed within the EU.
”The development work focuses on security, data privacy and the installation will need to fulfil both Swedish and EU requirements in the area,” says Jonas Berggren.

This is the virtual health room

Nordic Health Innovation (NHI), a company with 20 years’ practical experience of remote technology and virtual health care in extremely rural areas and which has been developed in close cooperation with the research organisation GMC (Glesbygdsmedicinskt Centrum, the Rural Medicine Center) in Storuman, is responsible for the launch of the virtual health rooms.

A virtual health room is a customised, unstaffed health room which is open 24 hours a day for recipients of care in rural areas. In the future, it will also be possible to install the virtual health rooms in people’s own homes or via their mobile phones. Doctors and other health care staff can connect to these rooms via video links, and the rooms will be equipped with a range of devices. All patients can go to one of these rooms and check their blood pressure and take blood, blood sugar and warfarin samples. These devices will be interlinked with district medical officers’ and the health care service’s case note systems via a central server. In future, the rooms will also be equipped with robot technology, planning and dimensioning tools and an app for diabetics.

25 years ahead of the rest of the world

Northern Sweden’s regions and municipalities have joined forces to support a collective medical services policy plan and an ambition with the aim of having at least 20 or so similar virtual health rooms in the four northernmost counties within two years. Two of them are already in progress via NHI in Storuman and Gällö, while a new health room in Ragunda will soon be under way.

”The social benefits are numerous. First and foremost, it will reduce the cost of patient travel and for hiring consultant physicians, which make up the largest expense items in the regions of northern Sweden,” says Jonas Berggren and adds:

“Our ambition is also for northern Sweden to provide a good testbed arena for rural medicine and distance-spanning methods. We are 25 years ahead of the rest of the world and we must turn our demographic lead to our advantage. We are aiming to devise hot products and services which will help us to live longer, healthier lives at home, while the same time providing care in people’s homes to a greater extent.”

For more information, please contact:

- Bert-Ola Bångman, Sigma IT Consulting. Tel +46 703-79 05 33.
E-mail: bert-ola.bangman@sigma.se

- David Österlindh, Sigma IT Consulting, tel. +46 733-51 48 24.
E-mail: david.osterlindh@sigma.se