About the AIRe-Platform project

AIRe-Platform – Digital rehabilitation platform

The Institute of Rehabilitation of Jamk University of Applied Sciences (Jamk) responds to the growing global need for rehabilitation by means of digital rehabilitation. Our aim is to build a smart platform solution and a simulation and development environment for digital rehabilitation, the planning of which will involve actors in the field, technology companies, end users and a multidisciplinary expert group of the Institute for Rehabilitation.

Key intelligence will be built for the platform to enable the self-assessment of client’s functioning and the referral to services through a single clear rehabilitation path in a human-centred manner, taking the client’s individual needs into account. The idea of using new technologies to bring services together instead of fragmentation and traditional siloing serves as the basis for the development work.

The back-end system of the AIRe-Platform will be based on open-source code, open interfaces and data content. The system design takes into account the independence and easy implementation of different modules as well as the interchangeability of the used technologies. Close dialogue on alternative solutions will be maintained with the technology companies selected for the procurement process.

Why an innovation partnership?

Jamk's procurement unit has selected innovation partnership as the procurement procedure for the platform with the aim of developing a solution that meets the client’s needs as well as possible. Taking the diversity and novelty value of the procurement into account, the procurement process requires active dialogue and negotiations with actors on the market. An innovation partnership serves this type of development work, as the procedure is characterised by extensive and diverse interaction and cooperation with the actors on the market.

Reward from the development work and possible new product or service models for future rehabilitation resulting from the development work act as incentives for the companies interested in the innovation partnership. The procurement objectives support the creation of new innovations, internationalisation, regional vitality and competitiveness as well as the growth of competence. The competence development and the expansion of the business potential of the actors participating the project will be supported by means of sharing good practices, reforming processes and co-creation.

The intelligent digital rehabilitation platform and development environment supports the client’s participation and activity during the rehabilitation process and offers the rehabilitation professionals the opportunity to utilise human-centered modern technology as part of their developing rehabilitation service processes. In the short term, the innovative procurement enables piloting and simulation of new digital rehabilitation services through co-creation. In the long term, a platform solution that promotes digital rehabilitation, will improve the availability of rehabilitation services and processes, as well as have an impact on the turnover due to the utilisation of new technologies and more efficient processes that follows the use of new technologies.

Participating in cooperation is worthwhile

The opportunities offered by digitalisation and the utilisation of artificial intelligence provide an excellent basis for the development of extensive services in the rehabilitation sector and increase the resilience of the sector in changing situations (such as pandemics) across national borders. The Finnish and global markets lack a digital rehabilitation service solution that meets the client’s needs, supports their functioning and rehabilitation process in a flexible manner and that has been developed with a client-oriented approach for the rehabilitation.

Technology companies working with new AI solutions will have the opportunity to participate in the development of a new kind of digital platform solution together with rehabilitation experts, service providers and their clients. The development of the service, which not only brings savings but is also human-centered, can combine the in-depth knowledge of the digital solutions that the Finnish technology companies have with the knowledge of user needs the professionals in the field have. New partnerships create the conditions for new technological innovations and synergies for companies in the sector to build new types of business.

A platform solution based on open-source code promotes opportunities for new types of digital rehabilitation services. AIRe-Platform offers various services and products for supporting people's functioning and well-being and a good everyday life. The digital rehabilitation platform to be developed appears as an interactive and human-centred comprehensive service to its users. At the moment, the challenge in the rehabilitation sector is the fragmentation and siloing of services as well as the fact that the different systems in use can increase the complexity of using the services from the client’s perspective.

The end users of rehabilitation services, including persons with disabilities, will be involved in the development work and they will participate in piloting and testing the service concept. When involving the end users, special attention is paid to linguistic expression at different stages of the process so that non-experts in artificial intelligence, digital innovations or rehabilitation can also participate fully in the discussion. Simultaneously, the aim is to increase understanding and knowledge of the possibilities of digital rehabilitation services among technology companies, rehabilitation professionals and their clients as well as the general public.

Innovation is the ambition of the Institute of Rehabilitation

The aim of Jamk’s Institute of Rehabilitation is to promote the development of human-centered and comprehensive services that support seamless service guidance and participatory rehabilitation processes through operating environments and solutions that utilise modern technologies. Our aim is to be a reformer of rehabilitation that is widely recognised and identified as a global actor in the development of rehabilitation. This can be achieved by developing an interactive platform solution for digital rehabilitation based on open-source code and utilising the latest technologies and artificial intelligence, which brings together the developers and producers of rehabilitation services as well as people who utilise rehabilitation services and products.

The implementation period of the AIRe-Platform project is 1 August 2022–31 December 2024. The project is funded by Business Finland.