The collaborative consortium has received millions of euros of funding in the Tekes Challenge Finland competition. The project is carried out in cooperation with various research organizations and companies, and it is led by the University of Oulu Research Unit of Medical Imaging, Physics and Technology.

Innokas Medical is a partner in a consortium which is developing a new imaging method for diagnosing coronary artery disease by utilizing the latest X-ray imaging technologies and mathematical reconstruction algorithms. With the new imaging method, the condition of coronary arteries is visualized, and a possible latent coronary artery disease revealed before a fatal heart attack occurs.

“The coronary artery disease is still one of the most common national diseases to burden our society. Approximately half of all heart attacks happen to people with no prior symptoms, and nearly half of them die of their first heart attack. Nevertheless, there is still no cost-efficient and reliable way in basic health care to determine the condition of coronary arteries nowadays, so that pre-emptive and necessary treatment could be started early enough”, says Miika Nieminen, Professor at University of Oulu Research Unit of Medical Imaging, Physics and Technology.

“The aim of this project is now to develop a new cardiac imaging method taking the cardiac imaging needs into account. With the new method, more cost-effective alternative examination methods are sought to enable the pre-emptive and necessary treatment to be started early enough”, Nieminen continues.

The project is carried out in cooperation with various research organizations and companies, and it is led by the University of Oulu Research Unit of Medical Imaging, Physics and Technology directed by professor Nieminen. In addition to Innokas Medical, the other consortium participants are the Department of Mathematics and Statistics in the University of Helsinki, the Oulu University of Applied Sciences, Northern Ostrobothnia Hospital District, and some other Finnish healthcare technology companies.

“It’s great to be part of the collaborative consortium where Innokas is able to utilize our earlier experience and knowledge in design and development of imaging devices and systems. The multidisciplinary character and extensive technological knowhow of this consortium guarantee an optimal team for the development work for an entirely new kind of imaging method through which we can contribute to improve healthcare all over the world. This reminds us how important and meaningful our work in the healthtech industry is”, says Innokas’ Account Director Mikko Kangas, who represents Innokas at the Steering Group of the project.

The collaborative consortium received total of millions of euros of funding in the Tekes Challenge Finland competition. In the competition, the aim is to find commercialized solutions to big problems by combining Finnish top research and corporate research and development work, and to accelerate the discovery of new Finnish export products and services.

For more information about the project, please contact:

Mikko Kangas, Account Director, Innokas Medical, mikko.kangas@innokasmedical.fi

Tiina Ihme, Project Manager, University of Oulu Research Unit of Medical Imaging, Physics and Technology, tiina.ihme@oulu.fi