What we do

We are a collaboration between the Nordic countries governments and their agencies. We are, from a rural point of view, working to make healthcare and social care more accessible through digital distance spanning solutions and service integration.

Our goal

We aim to speed up the digital shift of healthcare and social care in remote and rural areas by sharing best practices, provide inspiration and support service integration between healthcare and care.

What we have learned

Regions that are in the forefront, with wide uptake of digital distance spanning services, have secured trust for their service models which often integrates healthcare and care.

Latest news

  • Project news
  • Events
  • Publications

Distance spanning solutions in health care and care: Climate impacts and sustainability synergies

Distance spanning solutions in health care and care can help reduce environmental harm – one example is that care staff spend less time driving cars. But digitalised services also generate climate impacts. This report explores methods for measuring the consequences and evaluating how services affect sustainability in a broader perspective.

Join Us: iHAC Final Conference – An end for a new beginning

We invite you to the final iHAC conference, “An End for a New Beginning,” on November 5th-6th in Storuman, Sweden.

Fresh: new iHAC related research article published!

A new research article uncovers five pivotal success factors for implementing Health and Welfare Technologies in sparsely populated Nordic areas.

The decisions for iHAC call 2 are in, and they’re exciting!

8 project applications for integrated healthcare and care service provision have been approved out of 15 carefully evaluated ones. These projects cover a wide range of regions, from Finland to Sweden, Norway, Åland and even Greenland.

15 project proposals submitten – when closing the second and final iHAC call.

We are happy to announce that we have a challenging task to assess and evaluate 15 applications submitted for the second and final iHAC call.

Outcomes from iHAC Call 1

Learnings from iHAC Call 1 – Project outcome, impacts, learnings and reflections from Call 1 has now been collected in a report.

Fjallabyggd leads from the front with integrated elderly care

In the northernmost part of Iceland, the municipality of Fjallabyggd has set itself the goal of becoming the country’s leading provider of integrated elderly care services using digital and distance-spanning solutions.

Final call for regions and municipalities to develop conditions for integrated health and care

Second and final iHAC call; We call for applicants that aim to establish the necessary conditions to implement integrated healthcare and care services through distance spanning solutions.

More convenient access to healthcare for Värmland’s young and old

The Swedish Region of Värmland and four of its municipalities have come together to increase the use of digital solutions in elderly care and establish a one-stop shop for children with behavioural or mental health issues.

Region of Southern Denmark wants to narrow the digital divide in healthcare

In Southern Denmark, heart patients are encouraged to self-monitor and use digital consultations after their initial physical examinations at the hospital. The iHAC project in the Region of Southern Denmark is working to improve support for patients who could benefit from virtual consultations with the hospital but are not confident in doing so due to a lack of digital proficiency or other obstacles.

6 projects have during summer 2023 been contracted by iHAC

6 projects have during summer 2023 been contracted by iHAC. The ambition is to create sustainable integrated Healthcare and Care services, with support of distance spanning solutions. Read more about the projects here.

iHAC mid term review, December 2022

The Steering Committee of integrated Healthcare and Care – through distance spanning solutions decided in September 2022 to perform a half time project evaluation. Here are the summarised main recommendations obtained during the review.

Call for regions and municipalities to develop conditions for integrated health and care

The iHAC call aims to establish the necessary conditions to implement services for integrated healthcare and care through distance spanning solutions, via co-governance between different actors.

Integrated Healthcare and Care through distance spanning solutions – for increased service accessibility

iHAC has launched a new publication, demonstrating how co-governance increase service accessibility through integrated healthcare and social care.

Listen to our podcasts from Arendalsuka 2022

iHAC took part at the norwegian political week in 2022 and contributed to the discussions about integrated healthcare and care through distance spanning solutions. We had five guests invited for two sessions that has been recorded and produced into podcasts. All sessions were conducted at the boat Mester Rønne which was sailed from Bornholm Denmark to…

Working paper on Welfare institutes in sparsely populated areas

Nordregio presented their working paper related to Welfare institutes in sparsely populated areas (WIiSPA) at the 17th of June 2022. The overall purpose was to clarify and determine the definition of WIiSPA and identify WIiSPA actors in sparsely populated areas (SPAs) in the Nordic Region and beyond. […]

Thank you for meeting up with iHAC at H22 City Expo in Helsingborg

Presentations and pictures from our participation during H22 city expo in Helsingborg, Sweden.

Meet the future of integrated healthcare and care at H22 City Expo 13th of June 2022

Experience the future for integrated Healthcare And Care through distance spanning solutions (iHAC), we have 11 cases created by students at Umeå School of Design and Aalto University that take you into the future. With the models as a basis, you can also design your system for integrated Healthcare and Care. […]

Meet iVOPD/iHAC at Vitalis in Gothenburg – 18th of May 2022

We are happy to announce that we can meet up at Vitalis in Gothenburg, the biggest healthcare and care exhibition in the Nordics, at the 18th of May 2022. Our workshop will be conducted between 15:30-17:00.

Cross sector collaboration on health and wellbeing

Representatives from Nordic institutions and projects met on 21st of April at Nordregio in Stockholm to discuss how integrated healthcare and care can become a reality across the Nordics. […]

Integrated healthcare and care exhibition at World Expo

During the Health and Wellness week at World Expo at the end of January to the beginning of February 2022, iHAC participated in events connected to the Swedish pavilion as well as the Finnish pavilion. […]

Integrated healthcare and care concepts designed by students from Aalto university

What will integrated healthcare and care look like in 2030? Explore the visualizations made by interaction design students at Aalto university. […]

Designing the future of integrated healthcare and care – our collaboration with Umeå Institute of Design

Remote consultations through augmented reality and better sleep through ai. These are some of the concepts of integrated healthcare and care in 2030, made by interaction design students at Umeå Institute of Design.

iHAC at World Expo – where and when?

Today at World Expo, iHAC will take part at a session in the Swedish pavilion between 13:00-15:00 CET. See the full programme and link for the live session!

iHAC at WORLD EXPO

We are very proud of being invited to exhibit iHAC, integrated Healthcare And Care, at World Expo in Dubai. Our participation in Dubai will coincide with Arab Health week as well as Health and Wellness week by the end of January until early February 2022.

Collaboration between iHAC and Nordic design schools

We have collaborated with Aalto University – Department of Design and Umeå Institute of Design during autumn 2021 until January 2022 and their design students at Master level. This has been developed with a remote and rural point of view and resulted in 11 concepts of integrated Healthcare and Care.

Goosebumpify experiences of healthcare and care – Nordic Rebels and iHAC collaboration

During the last eight months, iHAC has collaborated with Nordic Rebels to visualize the knowledge collected during the last four years of studies by Healthcare and Care through distance spanning solutions (Vård och Omsorg På Distans – VOPD). Results from the collaboration will be premiered at Expo 2020 Dubai during the end of January to early February 2022.

We are the future of healthcare and care

What value can distance spanning solutions in healthcare and care bring the user? Listen to experiences from Nordic users.

Three elements to foster integrated health and care

Model-areas and their ecosystems/system components

For inspiration: We will map out and exemplify 5-8 model areas from Nordic countries in a publication. Focus on their system components which makes integrated healthcare and care service offers possible.

National and regional models for integrated use of health data

For orientation: We will demonstrate why and where health data are stored (siloed). Provide models of health data integration and models to transfer of health data between healthcare and care stakeholders.

Develop new model areas towards integrated healthcare and care

Future calls: We will support development of integrated healthcare and care service provision in minimum 5 areas, underpinned by distance spanning solutions.

Experiences from earlier VOPD activities

We are using the knowledge base built up within VOPD 2018-2021, the priority project forming part of the Swedish presidency programme for the Nordic Council of Ministers.