Innovative solutions improve patient outcomes and reduce costs
Asker is always searching for innovative solutions in the field of medical supplies, devices and equipment that can improve patient outcomes and reduce the total cost of care. Hanna Merikanto and her colleagues at Onemed in Finland describe how they identified a new wound care solution that led to one patient’s remarkable recovery.
“We’re always looking for innovative solutions that can help our customers, the Finnish healthcare sector, to take care of patients with improved outcomes, faster and at lower cost. Wound care solutions are particularly interesting as many patients are affected by wounds that don’t heal easily, which causes a lot of suffering often for long periods of time”, says Hanna Merikanto, Managing Director Onemed Finland.
At a healthcare conference, Hanna and her colleagues heard about a wound care solution called ActiGraft from a company called Red Dress. The solution uses the patient’s own blood, which together with other wound-healing substances re-activates the body’s natural healing process and accelerates the healing of the wound.
Much suffering and high costs
Immediately after Onemed had introduced the wound care solution to its customers in Finland, one hospital decided to test the treatment on a patient who had suffered from persistent wounds on his foot for ten years. During that period he had to go to the hospital no less than 3,120 times, which caused the man enormous suffering and was very costly for society. The cost for the previous treatments, that had not succeeded in healing the wounds, was estimated to have been more than EUR 200,000.
With the new treatment, the hospital noticed rapid progress. At the end of the summer, after just two months, the wound had almost completely healed and the treatment had cost only EUR 1,200.
“The results were impressive - fast recovery in combination with the low cost. But the best thing of all was that the patient no longer needed to suffer, after ten years of persistent pain and countless hospital appointments”, says Hanna Merikanto.
“These kinds of outcomes constantly drive us to look for innovative and efficient solutions within the medical supplies, devices and equipment field that improve healthcare and patient well-being.”
