SalWe Oy, the Strategic Centre for Health and Well-Being, launched in June 2010 its first research programme - the 'Intelligent Monitoring' programme -, the purpose of which is to monitor individuals' health and well-being. The programme includes the development of a rapid test system for monitoring prostate cancer.

Commenting on this initiative the Director of the Intelligent Monitoring programme, Jouko Haapalahti said: "One in five males develop prostate cancer before the age of 80. The mortality rate caused by the disease has decreased but approximately 800 men still die of it annually. During the treatment of spreading or repeating prostate cancer, the tumour can become resistant to the treatment in as little as a few years. Current methods are also incapable of reliably predicting the progress of the disease."

New methods are needed for early detection and for monitoring the progress of prostate cancer but also in order to decrease overdiagnoses. On the basis of the commonly used Prostate-specific Antigen (PSA) measurement, further examinations frequently also find clinically insignificant cancers. Overdiagnoses lead to unnecessary care and may cause significant harmful effects.

The change in individuals' health behaviour is demonstrated by the fact that one third of PSA examinations are evaluated on the request of the individual being examined. The 'Intelligent Monitoring' programme examines how health can be monitored better, easier and more cost-effectively than hitherto from the perspective of the individual by, for example, combining competence in nano-information and manufacturing technologies. Prostate cancer is just one of the many applications. Furthermore, the long run goal is to also combine the produced or gathered medical knowledge in a usable form for the individual.

"The Intelligent Monitoring programme combines - for the first time ever - diagnostic bio-measurements, modelling and processing of medical health information. The aim of the programme is to develop innovative, intelligent and cost-effective tools with which people or healthcare professionals can increasingly well affect well-being and promote health," says Saara Hassinen, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SalWe Oy.

The programme involves 13 companies and 7 research institutes. It will run until the end of 2013 with an overall budget of approximately €26.4 million. The Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation (Teknologian ja innovaatioiden kehittämiskeskus, Tekes) has granted €5.8 million in funding for the first period of the programme lasting until the end of 2011. Products, services and operating models born out of this cooperation aim at maintaining and improving individuals' operating ability. This aim is shared by SalWe's second programme 'Elixirs of the Mind and Body', which will be launched in the autumn 2010. The programmes will cooperate closely in the future.

Further information:

• Original News Article - The Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation (TEKES)
• SalWe (in Finnish)