Our western healthcare systems are facing tremendous challenges. First of all, patient numbers continue to grow. Europe’s old-age dependency ratio (people +65 years old relative to those aged 15-64) is expected to increase from about 30% in 2016 to over 51% in 2070 (1). Secondly, we have better, more personalised, targeted therapies but those come at higher costs. US public healthcare costs alone account for roughly 18% of the nation’s GDP (2017) (2).
Building sustainable value-based healthcare is paramount. Costs of care need to be justified by treatment outcomes. One cornerstone of the value-based healthcare will be the utilisation of digital health and artificial intelligence. Digitalization enables us to measure what matters to patients and healthcare overall. At Kaiku Health we aim to improve patients’ quality of life and survival through digital disease management, effective clinical workflows and digital health interventions. This leads to more preventive, personalised and value-based healthcare.
Studies have shown that the overall survival of metastatic cancer patients can be improved through digital patient monitoring (3,4). A recent study (5) from Oulu University Hospital and Docrates Cancer Center in collaboration with Kaiku Health showed that real-world symptom data collected through a novel ePRO application on cancer patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy aligns with the data from earlier clinical trials. This study was the first in the world to publish real-world data through self-reporting of patients undergoing immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy according to the researchers.
We at Kaiku Health believe that we can have a significant impact on people’s lives through harnessing real-world data in cancer care. Our vision is to provide personalised digital health interventions for every cancer patient. We can achieve our vision by working hard together with our partners: patients, healthcare providers, global life science companies as well as global IT platform partners. Real-world data platforms, such as Flatiron, have already paved the way by doing great work in real-world evidence generation in oncology.
What is critical to us at Kaiku Health is that we are independent and partner agnostic. We work for the best of the patient – with several partners. We have the strong backing of our investors such as TESI, Debiopharm Innovation Fund and Reaktor Ventures that enable us to grow fast and agile. Adding our Nordic DNA of world-class technological competence, hard-working attitude, humbleness, honesty, integrity and Sisu, we do not aim at less than being the global leader in digital health interventions in oncology.
Our team made excellent progress in 2018. The team of world-leading digital health professionals in Helsinki grew by 50 %. Some of the amazing talents joining our team are Dr. Ramin Baghaie with years of experience in globally leading oncology information systems, Mr. Marko Kuisma with years of experience in healthcare IT platforms and life sciences as well as Dr. Jussi Ekström, PhD in applied statistics and machine learning. We will continue the growth in 2019 and we have several exciting positions open.
On behalf of the whole Kaiku Health team, I also want to express our gratitude to our first Chairman of the Board Mr. Sami Erviö who is stepping down after four years in guiding the Board. We are excited to have Mrs. Tanja Dowe continue Sami’s work as our new Chairman.
I am sure Tesla is not leading the change in the car industry because it is easy. Nor is Space X flying to Mars because it is easy. They are doing it because someone needs to do it. Often the paradigm shift needs new innovators which work together with the industry to solve its challenges.
Kaiku Health has chosen to drive the paradigm shift of oncology care. Our mission is to improve quality of life through health data science. We are driving the change – not because it’s easy. But because it’s hard. Come join us.
Kaiku Health Annual General Meeting, Helsinki, March 14th, 2019.
Yours sincerely,
Lauri Sippola, CEO and Co-founder of Kaiku Health
(1) European Commission: 2018 Ageing Report: Policy challenges for ageing societies. https://ec.europa.eu/info/news/economy-finance/policy-implications-ageing-examined-new-report-2018-may-25_en
(2) Centers for Medicare & Medicaid services: National Health Expenditure Data.https://www.cms.gov/research-statistics-data-and-systems/statistics-trends-and-reports/nationalhealthexpenddata/nationalhealthaccountshistorical.html
(3) Basch E, Deal AM, Kris MG, Scher HI, Hudis CA, Sabbatini P et al (2016) Symptom monitoring with patient-reported outcomes during routine cancer treatment: a randomized controlled trial. J Clin Oncol 34(6):557–565. https://doi.org/10.1200/JCO.2015.63.0830
(4) Denis F, Lethrosne C, Pourel N, Molinier O, Pointreau Y, Domont J et al (2017b) Randomized trial comparing a web-mediated follow-up with routine surveillance in lung cancer patients. J Natl Cancer Inst 109(9): https://doi.org/10.1093/jnci/djx029
(5) Iivanainen, S., Alanko, T., Peltola, K. et al. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00432-018-02835-6