Presenting Kuopio Health members: Istekki manages a health data environment
“We want to provide our customers with a more smoothly-running Finland.”
Istekki manages a health data environment
Istekki is a publicly owned inhouse company whose biggest owners include the Hospital District of Northern Savo, the City of Kuopio and the Hospital District of Pirkanmaa.
“We provide our owner-clients with ICT and medical technology services. In this role, we are responsible for providing the entire hospital district and city with basic information technology, information system administration and knowledge management solutions as well as the technology services used in health and welfare”, says Juha Palve, Director, Health and Wellness Technology Services, Istekki.
Istekki employs nearly 700 people, around half of them in Kuopio. The company also has employees in Tampere, Jyväskylä and Oulu.
“We want to provide our customers with a more smoothly-running Finland. We can only sell our service to our customer-owners. Our aim is to provide them with joint services that produce value and effectiveness and can be reproduced.
The new wellbeing county reform is an interesting challenge for Istekki, as we aim to be a leading company in ICT and medication technology.
For the love of the game
Istekki became involved in the open Kuopio Health innovation ecosystem soon after its establishment.
“We are one of the anchor companies in health and social services in Kuopio, and many of our owners are among the founding members of Kuopio Health. We feel that we are a very strong part of this ecosystem”, Juha Palve explains.
Istekki also plays a strong role behind Kuopio Health. It governs the environment where health data important to the activities is produced, stores the data and provides integrations and data pools.
Istekki is also strongly involved in cooperation with other companies.
“We use around one hundred million of our EUR 150 million turnover to purchase products and services from third-party companies. We then package these as Istekki services for our owners”, Palve says.
He points out that, above all, Iskekki is part of Kuopio Health “for the love of the game.” Palve estimates that the company can benefit from the innovation ecosystem by finding new, innovative services and products from the network, which it can then offer its clientele.
To the international market through strong cooperation
Unlike many other members of the innovation ecosystem, Istekki does not have any current plans to enter the international market.
However, Juha Palve, who has been an influential figure in Kuopio’s health tech scene for decades, has a dream: he wishes that the open innovation ecosystem would achieve global visibility and that Kuopio Health could become a brand in healthcare known across the world.
“This will require enthusiastic people, a spirit of collaboration, facilities, and taking care of groundwork. We will also need some money, strong brand work, and building our reputation,” Palve envisions.