Mariella Särestöniemi recognised for advancing multidisciplinary digital healthcare research

Mariella Särestöniemi’s awarded paper presents a detailed investigation into her novel proposal of using radio channel analysis methods in capsule endoscopy to detect intestinal tumours that remain invisible to the capsule’s optical camera. The paper evaluates the technique’s feasibility and performance across different abdominal tissue thicknesses, pointing to a promising advance in minimally invasive gastrointestinal diagnostics.

In a broader scope, her work addresses a growing global problem: how to provide effective healthcare when systems are under increasing pressure. Ageing populations, shortages of healthcare staff, rising levels of chronic illness, and disruptions caused by war or climate change all contribute to this “polycrisis” in healthcare.

Särestöniemi’s award-winning research shows how multidisciplinary collaboration across medicine, engineering and data science can lead to new healthcare solutions. Her team designs portable, affordable devices for early diagnosis and patient monitoring that can be used in hospitals and everyday settings such as homes or remote clinics. Her current projects include wearable breast health monitors, portable scanners for detecting skull fractures, and home-based systems for tracking blood clots. The team also works on capsule endoscope channel modelling and uses realistic digital and physical human body models to test and refine these technologies.

Särestöniemi shared this work as a keynote speaker at the AIS Conference 2025 in June. Her talk explored how future healthcare will depend on innovations created by teams working across disciplines.

Central to this approach is the 6GESS project at the University of Oulu, which brings together experts from medicine, engineering, ICT and business. The aim is to build technologies that enable decentralised care, using smart medical devices connected through secure wireless networks and supported by artificial intelligence.

Särestöniemi emphasises that her work focuses on practical goals. The team aims to improve access to healthcare in rural, remote and disrupted environments. As healthcare shifts toward decentralised models, research like this will help shape the future of care. Särestöniemi’s international recognition signals the expanding role of cross-disciplinary science in developing new healthcare solutions.

The field will be in the spotlight again next summer, when the University of Oulu and partners host the Nordic Conference on Digital Health and Wireless Solutions (NCDHWS2026) on 16–17 June 2026.