The Summer University is taking place for the fourth consecutive year, organised by Tallinn University of Technology together with the European Institute of Innovation and Technology.

Masters students are seeking solutions that would help ensure the availability of sustainable and human-centred healthcare: how to organise pre- and rehabilitation treatment related to prosthetics, as well as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and cancer treatment. The students are also faced with the question of how to use existing health information more effectively to improve the availability and use of remote services to enable an individual approach in healthcare development. The students receive support from Estonian health experts throughout the duration of the summer university.

The tasks were prepared by the top specialists of the North-Estonian Regional Hospital, East-Tallinn Central Hospital, TEHIK, the Health Founder Accelerator, and Roche Eesti OÜ.

“Demographic and societal processes in the past have already pointed to the need to develop remote services, but the global COVID-19 pandemic has aggravated the problems. This is especially the case in situations where the availability of healthcare must be ensured in the event of a pandemic or other crisis situation,” says Barbara Haage, one of the organisers of the summer university, adding: “This year’s summer university therefore plays a weighty role, guiding the participants to contribute to solving socially relevant problems in addition to the business, technological and scientific aspect.”

Helen Staak, the community leader of the digital health study programme and author of the Summer University programme, noted that organising an online Summer University is challenging, but last year’s experience with an online Summer University supported the organisation. “We learned from last year’s feedback that if teams can manage and plan their time and teamwork, the process is enjoyable for them,” Staak claims.

The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) is one of Europe’s leading organisations in digital innovation and entrepreneurial education. The Summer University is one of the initiatives of EIT Digital which aims to broaden and contribute to the innovative capacity of young people and start-ups across Europe. The goal of the programme is to provide students with practical experience in the challenges they face in establishing a new business. The participants are mainly masters students of EIT Digital. The summer universities of EIT aim to combine education, research, and business.

The Summer University, which lasts until 6 August in the TalTech Mektory business centre, is organised by the digital health masters study programme team together with the TalTech Open University and School of Information Technologies.