Kuopio Health Board blog-Jussi Pihlajamäki
“Better organisation and leadership will enable us to achieve large-scale impacts.”
Clear roles, stronger impacts
Here at Kuopio Health, we have elements that work well and great opportunities for making the most of this innovation ecosystem. But something is still missing.
To maximise the impacts we get from Kuopio Health, we still have to clarify the roles that different parts of the innovation ecosystem play and what each of us is doing. We all must be involved in building the same ecosystem for collaboration.
In practice, this can mean that public agents and companies must come to a better agreement on what each of them will contribute to the ecosystem. Better organisation and leadership will enable us to achieve large-scale impacts.
A bridge from the university to the outside world
How do the research and education carried out at the university benefit society? No matter how many innovations we create at the university, the work will be futile unless we find companies that make use of our innovations.
While we also train professionals and experts, they must end up where competent professionals are needed. We also need dialogue and collaboration with companies in this context.
In both of these cases, Kuopio Health can contribute to building a bridge from within the walls of the university to business life or the public sector. This is how impacts are created. Above all, we need a bridge to international visibility.
A demand for indicators
Impacts are about more than merely introducing new things. Impacts require us to prove that our innovations bring benefits. This is particularly important in public healthcare, which is a huge cost item.
We need both short and long-term indicators. In the short term, we can measure impacts as new business generated and new initiatives launched. We should accomplish these in a matter of a few years.
But when it comes to research, a few years is not enough. First comes background work that lays the foundation for development. In a typical situation, it takes up to 10 years to see actual impacts.
As a result, it is important that we have an opportunity and the ability to assess and demonstrate future impacts. Will our innovations be actually used and will they bring genuine benefits to the service system or the general public?
At Kuopio Health, we have the international-level competence that this sort of assessment requires both in our corporate members as well as at the university.
Demonstrating impacts is key
Impacts and effectiveness are among the special competence areas worth highlighting that we have in Kuopio Health and the wider North Savo region. We are able to demonstrate impacts, which is immensely important at the societal level.
We have all the competence it takes for us to reach the international level. Our beacon must shine so brightly that they’ll see it all the way in Singapore.
Internationally significant results are a factor that will allow us to grow our business activities. Research must turn into innovations and innovations into applications and solutions. They will put us on a path of major, international growth.