Siemens Healthineers and Oulu University Hospital in Finland have inked a long-term radiology value strategic partnership.

The new 10-year contract with a deal volume of nearly 30 million euros includes the supply, installation, and maintenance of medical imaging technology and software, training and further education of staff, a flexible financing concept and consulting services to increase process efficiency and improve the value chain of clinical care.

“In this value partnership, we are pooling our strengths and, together with the Oulu University Hospital, we are building up a high-performance radiology department as well as oncology service line. Modern medical equipment is the central nervous system of future-proof healthcare,” João Seabra, head of Enterprise Services at Siemens Healthineers, said in a statement.

The deal calls for Siemens Healthineers to provide about 15 new large-scale imaging devices for radiology, as well as employee training aimed at boosting the hospital's desirability to workers.

“Our vision for change is that by 2030, Oulu University Hospital will be the smartest hospital in the world, where the latest technology, modern facilities and up-to-date know-how will guarantee efficient and best-quality care delivery. This partnership is one of the cornerstones for achieving this vision,” said Jaakko Niinimäki, Service Centre manager from Oulu University Hospital.

Siemens Healthineers has similar partnerships with healthcare providers worldwide, including: HMI Group in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, the University of Missouri System in the U.S., and the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust in the U.K., and also Nova Hospital in Finland.

Earlier in April, Philips agreed to supply Oulu with its newest image-guided therapy platforms for the next 10 years, including 11 state-of-the-art interventional suites for the hospital’s new interventional cardiology and radiology departments. These come with the latest version of Azurion with FlexArm.

Said Mikko Vasama, general manager of Philips Nordics, in a statement, “Using our expertise in cardiovascular care, our goal is to help clinicians treat their patients better by innovating existing image-guided therapy procedures and making entirely new ones possible.”

In February, Oulu and Varian, whose parent company is Siemens Healthineers, made news with the announcement that the company would provide imaging and radiation equipment for cancer treatment, workflow and decision support software, and a variety of services for equipment maintenance to train the hospital’s staff.

“Through this partnership, we will be obtaining not just exceptional equipment, but also a range of services that will help us realize substantial operational and clinical benefits across the entire treatment continuum, from diagnosis to therapy,” said Juha Nikkinen, chief physicist at Oulu University Hospital, in a statement.

Included in the equipment planned for installation are one Halcyon and two TrueBeam radiotherapy systems, a BRAVOS afterloader for high-dose-rate brachytherapy, the ARIA oncology information system and Eclipse treatment planning software, and a range of imaging systems, including a Somatom go.Open Pro CT scanner, a PET/CT scanner and a Magnetom Vida MRI scanner.

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