Press release -
Sigma paving the way for Swedish innovations in eHealth that can save lives
Sigma has a globally unique market position with its subsidiaries Sigma Connectivity and Sigma IT Consulting. These two companies have the advanced expertise for designing and providing connectivity, software solutions, platforms and consulting services in the Internet of Things, and they are at the absolute leading edge in a highly competitive global market.
Nordic Health Innovation AB (NHI) is located in Storuman in northern Sweden. NHI provides flexible, cost-effective and standardized solutions for modern digital health and medical care that bridge social, cultural, infrastructural, geographical distances in organizations and even entire countries. The solutions include fully equipped, virtual health and emergency rooms for both public and private health and medical providers, as well as training courses and remote access to doctors.
Sigma creating a better tomorrow
“For a company like NHI, having the right collaborative partner is essential,” says Jonas Berggren, CEO at NHI. “In Sigma we found a larger, well-known partner with recognized strong capabilities in innovation for creating a better tomorrow for all, and with mutual interest in working with us.”
“Sigma is extremely advanced with its solutions and services”
“We’re still a smaller company, but we have expansive objectives,” says Jonas Berggren. “This can make it difficult to find a larger and established partner that shares our visions for the future. At the same time, we need a partner that is at the leading edge when it comes to solutions and services.”
“Collaboration between Sigma and NHI is incredibly important to us,” says David Österlindh, business area manager for the Internet of Things at Sigma IT Consulting. “That NHI can enable modern, digital health and medical care will bring major improvements to people with varying social and cultural opportunities. And this will naturally have considerable significance for services in remote areas. This makes me especially proud that we are making this journey together with NHI and helping to create a better tomorrow.”
Health rooms of the future
- A virtual health room is a configurable, primarily unstaffed facility, intended for round-the-clock operation for patients in rural areas. The future's virtual health rooms can be installed in assisted living facilities, in private homes or be accessed via smartphones. Doctors and other medical staff can utilize video links as necessary and the rooms are equipped with a variety of devices. People can stop by, for example, for blood pressure checks and blood tests, or blood sugar and Waran tests. The equipment is interconnected with district physicians and medical records via a central server.
“This is a self-service facility where you easily screen yourself and make initial contact with a doctor,” says Dr. Peter Berggren, at the Centre for Rural Medicine. “People who can’t manage this can receive on-site help from personnel during certain hours of the day.”
Together with its partners Sigma IT Consulting, Microsoft, Ericsson and Cambio, NHI is putting considerable resources into further development of virtual health rooms.
“The sky's the limit as to how good we can make the virtual health rooms,” says Jonas Berggren. “Working together and with the help of Sigma’s innovative solutions and services, such as using components in Microsoft Azure, information will now be possible to integrate between health rooms and records systems, as well as Swedish eHealth accounts.”
Major benefits and significant effects
The benefits of virtual health rooms, with technology that is not dependent on physical location, are many. The biggest budget items for most Swedish county councils are for travel and physicians not on permanent staff. Annual costs amount to SEK 3.4 billion in Sweden for these physician.
“If one of five Swedes chose to make half of their appointments for primary health and medical care virtually, this would entail annual savings of up to SEK 1.2 billion. Furthermore, if one of three Swedes with chronic illnesses chose virtual care solutions, this would mean further cost reductions of SEK 369 million.”
The whole world in focus
In NHI’s virtual health rooms, various types of equipment, aids and methods are being developed and utilized for various societal solutions, not just in Sweden but all over the world.
As an example, virtual health rooms can be configured for people in major urban centers who want to test their blood pressure at a convenience store, or travelers who need to consult with a doctor while at an airport.
Virtual health rooms can also be configured for patients living in rural areas, based on their needs and conditions. All to provide people with increased service.”
“By pairing major innovative players such as Sigma with entrepreneurial companies like Nordic Health Innovation, we can create the future's health and medical care information environment today”
“This is an example of the innovative solutions that show what can be done in the health and medical care environments of the future,” says Mathias Ekman, business developer for health and medical care at Microsoft. “That such major innovative players as Sigma are collaborating with entrepreneurial companies like Nordic Health Innovation demonstrates the value of our partner network. That Sigma, with its solid knowledge in the Internet of Things, is taking the step into the sector creates new opportunities for digitalizing Swedish health and medical care. How Sigma and Nordic Health Innovation have chosen to utilize Microsoft Azure is a good example of what we at Microsoft call the intelligent cloud and the values the cloud can provide in health and medical care.
“We’ve closely collaborated with Microsoft for quite some time and it has been incredibly rewarding for both parties in the various projects in which we’ve work together,” says David Österlindh. “Microsoft has a very proactive and modern approach to the future's health and medical care environment, and besides our partnership with Nordic Health Innovation, we’ll soon be able to share information about other exciting projects that are either underway or in the starting blocks.”
For more information, contact:
David Österlindh business area manager for Internet of Things, Sigma IT Consulting
Email: david.osterlindh@sigma.se
www.iot.sigma.sewww.sigmaitc.se
Jonas Berggren CEO at Nordic Health Innovation
Email: jonas.berggren@nhiab.com
Mathias Ekman business developer for health and medical care, Microsoft
Email: maekman@microsoft.com
Topics
Categories
Sigma is a leading consulting group with an objective to make our custom-ers more competitive. Our means is technological know-how and a constant passion for finding better solutions. We are 2,500 employees in eleven countries.
Sigma is owned by Danir, held by the Dan Olofsson family.
