Part of OUH

The innovation projects done at OUH and in CIMT are always based on needs, ideas and/or issues from the clinical practice centered on patients, patient relatives and the hospital staff.

CIMT brings together hospital and university to ensure collaboration, coherence and knowledge sharing between researchers from the university and the physicians, nurses and other healthcare professionals who are in daily contact with the patients.CIMT is rooted in the innovation unit at OUH because it is the hospital – in the form of staff, patients and relatives – that defines what areas and needs we create new solutions and workflows for.

OUH researchers, who do research within the field of innovative medical technology, are also part of the network around CIMT or one of the two other innovation and research centres on artificial intelligence and clinical robotics.

OUH – AN INNOVATIVE HOSPITAL

Odense University Hospital (OUH) is an innovative hospital with a long tradition for working with innovation and testing and implementing new technological solutions. For example, OUH was the first hospital in Denmark where all (50) clinical wards switched to an electronic patient record instead of paper records, which became a reality in 2009.

Today, OUH has numerous examples of new technology used to improve and support treatment and workflows at OUH. A few examples are the patient app My Hospital, widespread implementation of telemedicine solutions such as video consultations and home monitoring, a growing use of clinical robots and automation solutions, artificial intelligence algorithms for clinical decicion support and VR applications for clinical use as well as staff training. OUH is currently testing a chatbot to answer patient questions about endometriosis as one of the latest innovations.

The OUH board of directors focuses on strategic innovation and puts an emphasis on not only finding new projects but also making sure that they are implemented, evaluated and distributed to the relevant departments and patient pathways. Not only at OUH, but in the entire Region of Southern Denmark.

THE OUH INNOVATION FUND

The focus on strategic innovation has resulted in an Innovation Fund of approx. 270.000 euro, which was first apportioned in 2016. The aim of the Innovation Fund is to support innovation projects with the potential to improve patient satisfaction and/or the workflow at OUH. OUH also has an Innovation Day with a prize for the most innovative department or ward. The  Innovation Day promotes the sharing of good ideas at the hospital to expand innovation and development across wards, departments and physical locations.

OUH Innovation is organisatorically placed near the board of directors with close ties and coorperation with the clinical wards. The central position ensures that OUH works strategically with innovation – aligned with other strategies and with emphasis on evaluation and potential for upscaling.

The clinical wards are increasingly aware of innovation, and the first decentralised innovation unit has thus been established at the Department of Radiology.