Healthcare Automation - Denmark as an innovation platform for digitalisation, AI, and robotics in a hospital setting
Denmark is investing in the hospital of the future, based on automation and digitalised service delivery.
Advances in digital health, AI, and robotics require live testing in clinical settings before they can be commercialised. International companies can make use of numerous innovation platforms emerging across the Danish healthcare system, offering companies a one-stop-shop model to test, develop, and scale new approaches.
Technical test bed within a clinical setting
Innovation platforms facilitate experimentation, pilot testing, gather iterative end-user feedback, and allow for rapid implementation of new solutions in a hospital setting. Several new platforms have been launched across the Danish health system. One such platform consists of three centres anchored at Odense University Hospital (OUH) and the Faculty of Engineering at Southern Denmark University (SDU) that function to drive innovation within specific technical focus areas but using a common framework.
The Centre for Clinical Robotics (CCR) aims to improve hospital treatment and workflows by bridging robot technology and clinician needs. The centre focuses on hardware robots across all areas of hospital activity, from logistics, food service, and cleaning, to automating tissue samples in the lab and even direct support in clinical treatment.
The Centre for Clinical Artificial Intelligence (CAI-X) focuses on bringing engineers, doctors, and companies together to create AI solutions that address clinical workflows. The goal is full utilization of AI solutions via intelligent use of data and technology for the benefit of patients, staff, and the broader healthcare system.
The Centre for Innovative Medical Technology (CIMT) focuses on apps, telemedicine, home monitoring, video consultations, VR, and wearables. It is the most established of the three centres and has over a decade of experience in implementing innovation projects.
“We have been moving from somewhat reactive or even accidental innovations to the point of now doing innovation deliberately. It has really gone from a nice to have to a must have. It is strategic, and important.”
Innovation embedded into the clinical site to facilitate collaboration with clinicians and engineers
The governance model is key to the collaboration type generated by these initiatives. The centres are located directly at a hospital, enabling a direct understanding of the domain and can more effectively connect external partners with the best partners from hospital and university. The initiatives are embedded into the hospital’s clinical leadership through the Department of Clinical Development, and clinical heads of department are placed on the steering committee.
This puts experimentation at the core of the hospital, as innovation teams from CCR, and CAI-X, and CIMT work hand-in-hand with clinicians and staff to apply new automation tools through robotics, AI, and digitalisation.
“We hear about a lot of good ideas. There is a lot of initial research that goes into new approaches. But implementation is where the real value is. If you can implement the ideas, then you really make a difference. And this is the hard part.”
“There is an amazing range of applications. We have projects that cover imaging of tissue sample, analysis of journals and records to understand bleeding incidents, register data combined with information from equipment and patient flow data to help with optimization, and real time analysis that can actually improve diagnosis. AI covers all areas of healthcare services within the hospital at the clinical and operational level, and we work to find new ways to exploit these technologies.”
“While we are developing a new potential solution, we can invite clinicians to come and visit us downstairs and give us rapid feedback. They like seeing what we are working on and being involved in the development process and our close access to the healthcare professionals enables us to get prototypes up and running much quicker than if we had to outsource this work. Our access to clinical workflows is really what sets us apart.”
“It provides an outlet for the clinicians. Instead of feeling frustrated about the way things work, we’ve built a culture of “getting-things-done” attitudes, where you can identify a problem and then the whole team will work together to create a solution. It is really satisfying from a culture building perspective to work on all these automation projects.”
Driving the digital transformation of healthcare services
The Danish government launched a new Digitalisation Strategy to proactively address future needs via digital technologies. The strategy aims to free up more time for specialists by automating repetitive tasks and focusing on core functions. This places Denmark at the centre of international digitization, creating the digital healthcare system of the future.
“Automation is about eliminating the Three Ds - “dull, dirty and dangerous.” We do not have many people complaining about losing out to a robot when it comes to fetching samples, cleaning, or organising thousands of glass slides in a lab. We free up the time for people to do more patient-centric and demanding work. And after our experience with the pandemic, we need to make sure we have the ability to be resilient in challenging times.”
From ideation to funding and project coordination – plug and play model to support your development project
Based on this experience and concrete expertise in implementing projects with clinicians, the centres actively seek international partners to help drive the next generation of hospital innovation, particularly SMEs with innovative products that are interested in engaging in development projects.
The centres can support the entire projects flow ranging from ideation to seeking funding and project coordination. There are collaboration opportunities for companies with early-stage concepts under development. Using the framework of Technology Readiness Levels (TRL), an ideal collaboration opportunity would fall between TRL 3 (‘first experimental proof of concept’) and TRL 7, where a prototype can demonstrated in an operational environment.
“One of our primary tasks is to quality assure and alleviate any technological “teething issues” and help develop the tech so that we are 100 percent certain that it helps our colleagues in putting the patients’ needs first, especially when talking about integrating robot solutions in hospital wards.”
“There are many pieces that go into implementation. We connect dots. We have over a decade of experience implementing new technologies so we have a lot of tacit knowledge in how to get these tools into the hands of clinicians. I would not call it a playbook but we know where the usual risks are, and where we can actually make a difference. This is something that takes time, and takes a lot of positive experiences to show people that innovation is possible.”
“Clinicians have been enthusiastic in identifying areas where solutions might work. We help translate these ideas into project concepts and manage the relationship with technology developers. It is a plug-and-play model where we try to exploit the expertise of everyone involved by bringing some structure and process to the tables. And ultimately, we are trying to get these solutions into operation.”
The centres support with project management, establishing company contact and providing an overview of other projects at OUH and SDU that have addressed similar challenges.
Read more about the support available for implementing a project.
“We are not looking for final products or ready-made solutions. We want partners to work with us to develop solutions that fit into our workflows and operations. This makes sure the innovations offer real value to patients and staff, and we know they work because they solve specific challenges.”