Below you will find our annual report broken down into our four focus areas, where you can find out more about:

• How the first digital solution procured with the support of the Demand Acceleration framework has now been resold to almost 30 organisations, both in private and public care.
• How our work to establish a national framework for quality assurance of health applications resulted in a report with a clear roadmap for Sweden.
• How our startup ecosystem is building a unique knowledge niche to support public sector business. Knowledge that provides tools to solve public sector needs with new technologies, while giving innovative companies leverage for growth.
• How our research environments are both lifted by other actors and build new bridges for collaboration!

Many thanks to all our partners!
In 2024 alone, we are 417 actors who have contributed in various ways to initiatives in the health innovation ecosystem.

Quality assurance of health apps

DigitalWell Arena continues its work to establish a national framework for quality assurance of health applications. At the end of 2024, a report was published with recommendations on how Sweden can both accelerate the use of health apps and create a safer market.

The report is the result of a one-year feasibility study involving both authorities and industry organisations, including the Medical Products Agency, the eHealth Agency and Swedish Medtech.

The report makes a number of recommendations on how Sweden can increase the trust and utility of health apps. The most central conclusion is that a national quality framework with clear requirements needs to be put in place.

Today, the quality of health apps is assessed by each individual municipality or region, creating unequal access to new services. For companies, the lack of standardised requirements means high development costs. Ultimately, there is a risk that Swedish solutions will be directed towards other markets, with clearer regulations and greater opportunities to scale.

“DigitalWell Arena has established itself as an intermediary that brings together key stakeholders around this important issue. Without a clear structure to evaluate the quality of health apps, their usefulness risks being limited, especially in the public sector,” says Jonas Matthing, Executive Director of DigitalWell Arena.

Focus on applying existing frameworks

Even while waiting for a national framework, the public sector needs to improve its knowledge of quality assurance for health apps. In connection with the feasibility study, three Swedish companies (Everon, ProBits and Imagine Care) had their applications tested according to the Nordic quality framework NordDEC, which gave positive results.

In 2025, more companies will therefore be offered assessments under existing quality frameworks. At the same time, the public sector will be more actively involved, as an important aspect is that public customers start using existing frameworks to set quality requirements.

“This includes identifying whether there are different interpretations of the regulations, or other obstacles to the use of health apps,” says Marie Granander, project manager at DigitalWell Arena.

Innovation through procurement

2024 has marked a breakthrough for public procurement as a tool for innovation. Three new procurements have been carried out with the support of the Demand Acceleration framework – in addition, the first service developed has now been procured by almost 30 organisations.

As recently as 2021-22, the principles of the Demand Acceleration framework were put into practice for the first time in a public procurement by the municipality of Karlstad. In short, the approach involves integrating public procurement into innovation processes, where several companies can be procured to work together with the organisation to create a solution with the potential for widespread adoption.

In Karlstad, the health and social care unit was looking for a better way to train care staff in dealing with customers with cognitive impairment. The solution developed with the support of Demand Acceleration became a new VR service, where staff can experience everyday life from the customers’ perspective in a number of scenarios.

Solution that quickly scaled to more customers

Virotea was the company that developed the final solution, and their service “Virotea ED” now has 26 organisations as paying customers, both in private and public care. In the last year alone, the customer base has doubled and the service has also reached beyond Sweden’s borders, having recently been procured by the City of Mariehamn in Åland.

“When you develop a new theory to drive procurement, you are happy if it can be tested in practice at all. The fact that the first solution created through a Demand-Acceleration procurement has already reached this many customers is a fantastic result”, says Jonas Matthing, Executive Director of DigitalWell Arena.

Three new procurements during the year

In 2024, the Demand Acceleration framework has been applied in three additional procurements, both within and outside the health sector:

• Hammarö Municipality will soon launch a brand new citizen portal, which will better capture the needs of individual residents.
• The City of Helsingborg has procured a development programme aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions from the city’s consumption, where the Kungshult nursing home has served as a test bed for the 5 companies that participated in the process.
• In October,the municipality of Karlstad launched “Öppna Staden“, a digital service that increases the opportunities for people with cognitive challenges to take part in the city’s offerings more independently. In just a few months, the service has gained 300 users, and is about to spread to other municipalities in Sweden.

Tools to capture market ideas

Almost as important as the completed procurements are the market dialogues Demand Acceleration contributes to through so-called RFI (Request For Information). One example is the Karolinska University Hospital’s Solution Enabler Programme, where an RFI has served as a tool for identifying companies with new approaches to developing hospital-connected advanced paediatric care at home.

“An RFI is an important interface where the public sector can communicate its needs. It creates broader contact areas for development projects, where more companies can participate and make proposals to realise the public sector’s perceived needs. It provides a common learning that increases the opportunities for good, public business and lays the foundation for implementation,” says Jonas Matthing.

Growing community sharing knowledge

Meanwhile, the Demand Acceleration community continues to grow and now includes 120 participants in more than a handful of countries, many with key roles in innovation and procurement.

The development of the community, and the common resources that facilitate shared learning (including manuals, reports and articles) has been inspired by research on both commons and innovation commons.

Interest in the Demand Acceleration framework also remains strong internationally. Mainly within UNECE (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe), where DigitalWell Arena is leading a workstream on innovation procurement involving experts from Spain, Georgia and the European Commission, among others.

Incubation for start-ups

The interaction between innovative companies and the public sector has become a key thematic issue for health innovation. In 2024, important steps were taken to further improve this interaction – with the DigitalWell Arena ecosystem becoming something of a national model.

Several important pieces have fallen into place within the startup ecosystem of the Arena. In close collaboration with DigitalWell Ventures, an increasingly strong knowledge niche is being built to support public business.

As early as 2023, a joint feasibility study (the ACCESS project) highlighted a knowledge gap within the incubator system to meet the demands of the public sector. Within the initiative, we have since worked to improve the conditions, tools and methods for business advisors within the Swedish incubator system. The aim is to support start-ups in helping to solve public sector needs by applying new technologies, while giving innovative companies leverage for growth.

Handbook for incubators – including AI support

This work has given rise to several exciting initiatives in 2024. One example is a handbook, aimed at both companies and business developers, on the public sector as a strategic market for startups. The handbook and other relevant knowledge also form the basis of an AI-based tool to support companies and business advisers.

“Developing companies and business advisors around the specifics of public sector business is an important kit for DigitalWell Arena. It complements other key issues we are pursuing and counteracts system lock-ins. By honing skills also on the supply side, DigitalWell Ventures is setting an important strategic direction for its incubator activities”, says Jonas Matthing.

Excellent incubator and a growing network

In addition to a clearer strategic focus, there were several other pleasing milestones to look back on during the year:

• DigitalWell Ventures once again qualified for the National Incubator Programme. This means that the organisation is classified as one of Sweden’s 30 excellent incubators for another four years, with the right to government funding.
• The accelerator programme completed its seventh cohort. The end point was set in November, when ten exciting startups met investors at “Demo Day” in Oslo. In total, around 70 companies have now completed the DigitalWell Ventures acceleration and incubation programme, which in addition to health also includes companies focusing on public safety and public sector solutions.
• Continued strong interest in DigitalWell Innovation Watch. The digital meeting forum allows innovative companies to meet with public sector representatives to get direct feedback on their solutions. In total, 170 people are now part of the growing network, with more than 50 companies already presenting their services.
• During the year, DigitalWell Venture’s international network was also expanded with a large number of new ecosystem partners. This is a sign of the great interest in the issues DigitalWell Arena is pursuing even outside Sweden.
• Finally, it is worth mentioning that DigitalWell Arena has been commissioned to put together a national innovation support programme for Health Data Sweden. The model is the collaboration model in Värmland developed within DigitalWell Innovation Support, where the strong cooperation with the public sector is a key feature.

Through these initiatives, DigitalWell Arena continues to build bridges between innovative companies and the public sector, and create better conditions for future health innovations!

Needs-driven research

An interdisciplinary approach is increasingly characterising research at DigitalWell Arena. Karlstad University speaks of a paradigm shift, where external requests and collaborations increasingly influence the direction of research.

A key part of this development is the “Arena Project”, in which six research groups at Karlstad University are collaborating to drive innovation in the field of health. The initiative, which started in 2021, has now begun to produce clear results and is also creating new opportunities for collaboration with industry and the public sector.

Health and technology research on IVA’s top list

One high-profile example is the international 6G-path project, involving researchers from Computer Science and Nursing at Karlstad University. The test environment created in Karlstad will allow students to participate in different medical scenarios remotely via VR. The project aims to use new solutions in mobile communication (5G/6G) to improve students’ training through more realistic scenarios.

The study has been included in the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences’ top 100 list for 2024, which includes another research project from Karlstad University with a clear health link: the SWEA tool, which uses advanced data analysis to identify stress factors to create a healthier work environment.

Growing interest from external partners

Within DigitalWell Arena, several initiatives linked to data and digital technology are being run in collaboration between research, business and the public sector. Examples include children’s and young people’s mental health, dementia, the transition of social services and security in society.

According to Erik Wästlund, coordinator of the research groups at Karlstad University, this is, in a way, a paradigm shift, where external organisations’ requests influence the direction of research to a greater extent than before.

One clear example is the “Child and Youth Journey” project, where researchers from Karlstad University, in collaboration with several municipalities in Värmland, are working on how AI can support efforts to identify young people at risk of mental illness earlier.

A related project for 2025 focuses on how children of parents with psychiatric conditions can be supported via mobile apps. These children are entitled to preventive interventions to reduce the risk of developing their own mental health and socio-economic problems. The project involves BRIS and the organisation Maskrosbarn, among others.

Want to understand the individual’s experience

Increased understanding of the individual is also a recurring theme in several studies. In this genre, researchers from the Centre for Services Research (CTF) and the Centre for Gender Research want to analyse the promises often associated with new technological solutions.

A central issue is to gain a better understanding of the concept of independence, which is often mentioned when implementing technology in elderly care. Among other things, by relating the concept to the experience of vulnerability, taking into account factors such as age, gender and socio-economic status.

“Independence and security are core values in the digitalisation of healthcare. Despite this, there is no standardised way to measure individuals’ perceived independence. Current methods focus only on physical and cognitive capabilities, such as dressing or cooking. But digital tools can offer so much more, such as giving people a sense of control over their lives,” says Charlotte Bäccman, senior lecturer in psychology and researcher at CTF.

Key issue for the future health system

Jonas Matthing, Executive Director of DigitalWell Arena, has a 25-year background in research on digitalisation. He believes that how digital solutions are perceived by the individual will be a key issue for the reform of good and close care, as well as the implementation of person-centredness:

“Given the demographic challenges we face, technological solutions in health and social care are both a necessity and an opportunity. Therefore, research on the qualitative aspects of technology is very important.”