Innovation and health technologies

Odense University Hospital (OUH) has a long tradition of working with innovation as well as of testing, implementing and assessing new technological solutions. This means that new technologies and innovative initiatives are a regular part of the hospital’s daily operations, which constantly improve treatments and workflows at OUH. Innovation has been a key part of OUH for years. For instance, OUH was the first Danish hospital where all 50 clinical wards switched to an electronic patient record back in 2009.

Another innovative measure has been the app My Hospital, which can be used by all OUH’s patients regardless of disease, diagnosis, ward, etc. It is now in use in all of the Region of Southern Denmark. A high degree of digitisation, an agile IT infrastructure and an innovative culture are the prerequisites for us at OUH to easily and quickly test and implement new solutions – the basic elements and the digital foundation are in place.

The work with strategic innovation is grounded in the unit for Innovation and Health Technology Assessment (HTA) in the Department of Clinical Development. Today, Innovation and HTA is a centrally placed unit at Odense University Hospital that carries out both large and small projects in the field of innovation and health technology.

The unit has approximately 30 employees and collaborates with all staff groups at the hospital, researchers from the university, private companies, local municipalities and general practitioners on creating solutions that improve the healthcare services offered at Odense University Hospital.

The Innovation and HTA unit works with all kinds of technology that have the potential to add value and improve treatment and care, such as telemedicine, mobile apps, camera pills, video consultations, robots, drones, AI, VR/AR, etc. The projects vary from development of new technology, testing existing technology in new settings and implementation of solutions to assessing the effects of medical technology.