Forerunner in rehabilitation

Multidisciplinary rehabilitation is one of the three recognised focus areas of JAMK University of Applied Sciences. We act as a forerunner in rehabilitation, developing the best rehabilitation solutions in collaboration with working and business life.

We have a significant educational mission, in addition to which we engage in a number of RDI development projects and competent service business and research activities.  

At the heart of everything is a well-functioning everyday life that we pursue in a customer-oriented and multidisciplinary way by promoting working and functioning.

  • Active lifestyle and excercise rehabilitation
  • Customer and Service guidance and rehabilitation processes
  • Technologies ​and operating environments ​to support rehabilitation
 

Principal Researcher of JAMK University of Applied Sciences, Merja Rantakokko, has been granted a funding of 414 197 euros from the Academy of Finland to study older people's mobility

28 May 2020

Gait features in different environments contributing to participation in outdoor activities in old Age (GaitAge) focus on alterations in biomechanical features of gait in different environments, and their possible contribution to participation in outdoor mobility among older people. The study is conducted at the JAMK University of Applied Sciences School of Health and Social Studies, in collaboration with University of Jyväskylä and Tampere University.

  • The ability to walk is a key issue for independent old age. With increasing age, changes in gait, such as in step length and cadence are common, and have been shown to increase risk of mobility decline. However, gait assessments are typically based on laboratory measures, even though walking in a laboratory environment may be significantly different to walking in normal daily life. Now we have possibility to study this, as new sensor fusion technology allows gait analysis in normal living environments, says Merja Rantakokko, principal investigator of the project.

Previous research has shown that environmental features may either promote or restrict participation in outdoor activities. However, these studies have not been able to show an individual level, how environment influence on changes in gait biomechanics.

  • We will study alterations in gait biomechanics when walking in different kinds of environments; standard indoor, level outdoor, hilly and every-day living environment close to the participants’ home. We will also study whether these alterations in gait biomechanics are associated with participation in outdoor activities among older people. This will provide us with new information for prevention and rehabilitation of mobility decline and to places of rehabilitation, for example, Rantakokko continues.

The Academy of Finland’s Research Council for Biosciences, Health and the Environment today granted funding for 83 Academy Projects that include a total of 87 subprojects. The funding totals around 40 million euros. The success rate was 18 per cent.

Academy of Finland: Projects funded in biosciences, health and environmental research: focus on scientific renewal, early-career researchers
Logo of the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture

Nearly a million euros of special funding from the Ministry of Education and Culture for a joint project by JAMK and Metropolia

15 March 2019

JAMK University of Applied Sciences and Metropolia University of Applied Sciences received EUR 970,000 of special funding from the Ministry of Education and Culture for the development of multidisciplinary rehabilitation on the regional and national scale. This was the second time the funding was awarded by the Ministry of Education and Culture, and it has become a permanent form of strengthening the quality and effectiveness of RDI activities as well as a means of supporting strategic planning and leadership.

JAMK and Venture Development Finland Ltd to engage in cooperation

11 October 2018

JAMK University of Applied Sciences and Venture Development Finland Ltd have initiated cooperation that aims at setting up a new service package focused on multidisciplinary rehabilitation. The cooperation is also part of the Growth Accelerator programme jointly implemented by the City of Jyväskylä, the University of Jyväskylä, JAMK University of Applied Sciences and Venture Development Finland.

A large number of smart services and solutions that utilise digitalisation have emerged around health and well-being activities. The network of services is very extensive, and in many cases, clear service packages are missing. In the field of rehabilitation in particular, easy-to-use and customer-oriented turnkey solutions that utilise modern technology are almost completely lacking. 

Rehabilitation activities have a long tradition in Finland, especially because of our war veterans. The current lifestyles, increasingly stringent demands of working life, changes in the social structure (such as increased loneliness) and strong growth in the number of elderly people have changed and increased the need for rehabilitation, and rehabilitation activities have been unable to pick up the pace. The demands of contemporary life and long institutional rehabilitation periods are difficult to combine. Instead, new forms of rehabilitation are needed that are more of the outpatient type and take account of and provide support for everyday activities. Special effort is also needed to develop coherent and timely rehabilitation processes.

To address this demand, Venture Development Finland and JAMK signed a contract on 11 October 2018 to launch a Multidisciplinary Rehabilitation development programme and cooperation. The purpose of the cooperation is to create new, easily accessible and deployable products and services in the rehabilitation sector and improve the quality of rehabilitation activities. In addition to the domestic market, the service package will be commercialised for the international market as well.

The services and technologies may relate to the detection, prevention and rehabilitation of work-related musculoskeletal disorders, to people of different ages living at home or in a home-like environment, or to rehabilitation from sports- and exercise-induced injuries, to name but a few examples. This new, productised turnkey service concept will be tailored for the end customer to be as easy to use as possible. The best operators in the field will be selected for the programme, and co-operation will be used as a means of ensuring the quality of the operations. 

Venture Development Finland Ltd has 10 years of international expertise in business and value growth. The company has experts not only in Finland, but also in Stockholm, Rome, Frankfurt and the United States. In addition to planning, the company’s experts have developed in practice the business of more than 150 companies – from sales to partnerships and from financing to international growth.

JAMK is a nationally recognised developer and forerunner in the rehabilitation sector. JAMK educates rehabilitation experts to address future needs and responds to challenges related to working and functional capacity by developing new rehabilitation services. In collaboration with working and business life and institutes of higher education, research and development, JAMK engages in multidisciplinary research and development activities and provides consultation services.

The Multidisciplinary Rehabilitation project is included as part of Venture Development Finland’s Wealth & Health and Smart Digital Home development programmes that focus on health and well-being, safety, energy efficiency, communication, construction and interior design, and living comfort.

 

The centre of excellence for rehabilitation renews education in the field

JAMK and Metropolia University of Applied Sciences have already engaged in cooperation as a centre of excellence in the field of rehabilitation for a couple of years, funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture. The centre of excellence renews, strengthens and develops rehabilitation education for the benefit of the rehabilitees.

The centre of excellence will grow into a cooperation network for institutes of higher education that provide education in rehabilitation to address the competence needs in the field on a national level. The centre of excellence will engage in close cooperation with upper secondary and university education. The centre also aims at expanding international cooperation in education. The educational offerings in foreign languages and double degrees will be increased by, among other things, strengthening the jointly planned online studies. There are also plans to put together a national education export consortium in the field of rehabilitation.

The centre of excellence also serves as a research and development centre for the rehabilitation field. A cooperation network for research, development and innovation projects can be created around it to generate solutions that support functional capacity and participation among rehabilitation clients. The network efforts are centred around updating the operating models of rehabilitation, prevention, rehabilitation as a multi-party process, and producing digital and technological solutions. The network participates in social debate to strengthen the role of rehabilitation in the reform of healthcare and social welfare services and in educational activities at different levels of education.

JAMK and Metropolia University of Applied Sciences engage in cooperation as a centre of excellence in the field of rehabilitation and develop education as well as cooperation in research and development activities in the field. The centre of excellence engages in cooperation with working and business life and the university, research and development units located in the region. JAMK participates in the development work related to new regional investments, such as the New Hospital and the Hippos area, and in the development of customer-centred service processes. At JAMK, rehabilitation combines expertise from several fields of study.

More information:

Mirja Immonen, Head of Department Multidisciplinary Rehabilitation
Rehabilitation and Social Studies
School of Health and Social Studies
+358405478949
firstname.lastname@jamk.fi

Well-being for the whole world!

JAMK’s Multidisciplinary Rehabilitation area of strength is involved in the operations of the Central Finland Health and Wellbeing Ecosystem KeHO. KeHO brings together experts, professionals and operators in the fields of social welfare and healthcare, sports, exercise and well-being into a multidisciplinary network. KeHO is a global platform of growth for experimentation and expertise in actions to promote well-being. At the heart of KeHO’s operations are research, education, innovations and projects focusing on the promotion of well-being and health.

Read more about the Ecosystem KeHO
 

RDI activities in multidisciplinary rehabilitation

We act as the forerunner of rehabilitation and pilot interesting ways to implement rehabilitation. Take a look at our projects currently under way!

Kosovo city

A new kind of learning and innovation centre being built in Kosovo

The Student-Run Multidisciplinary Allied Health Practice Center is a 3-year Erasmus+ project (2018–2021) to build a new, student-run learning and innovation centre in Kolegji-Heimerer, Pristina. On the Kosovo side, the project participants include the Universities of Gjakova and Gjilan, the Ministry of Education and two organisations. European partners, in addition to Metropolia, include JAMK and the University of Manisa from Turkey. The aim is to develop practice-intensive, meaningful and lifelong learning in multidisciplinary rehabilitation and health sciences in line with the Bologna Process in collaboration with service organisations and associations, businesses and ministries.

JAMK is responsible for the course reform work, which will fully commence during the spring of 2020. The course renewal aims at increasing the students’ competence in multidisciplinary customer-oriented and evidence-based activities that are central to the centre’s operations. Additionally, the new courses will enhance the students’ competence in entrepreneurship and innovation activities. The courses will be directed at different levels of education, ranging from EQF5 to EQF7.

Service design in home care – evolving competence of the home care personnel: Development of work content and promotion of coping at work by means of collaborative service design

The Finnish Work Environment Fund awarded funding for a two-year research project by JAMK University of Applied Sciences on 28 May 2019. Evolving competence of the home care personnel: Development of work content and promotion of coping at work by means of collaborative service design (Service design study, School of Health and Social Studies, JAMK). The research project will be implemented in collaboration with the Municipality of Laukaa and the City of Äänekoski.

According to recent research, the current challenges in home care should be addressed by reforming the staff’s competences, work processes and content to increase the meaningfulness of work, occupational well-being and attractiveness of the sector. The purpose of this two-year study, coordinated by JAMK, is to describe and model the municipalities’ (a) home care service design, (b) the competences needed for it, and (c) how the service design products being developed can be rooted into the reformed service structures. Additionally, (d) the project will examine the changes in the competence, coping at work and work content of the home care staff through their engagement in the development work and familiarisation with service design by means of piloting.

The target group of the study consists of the home care staff (estimate n=100) of the implementing municipalities (Laukaa, Äänekoski) and development teams of three to four persons selected by municipality. The multi-method study will utilise existing data and data that will be compiled during the course of the study. Quantitative data (staff surveys, municipal data on management by knowledge) provide an overview of the phenomenon being studied as a whole, while qualitative data (team focus group discussions and learning diaries) provide an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon being studied. Based on the results, a proposal will be made for a regional home care service design model that supplements the Central Finland customer path developed in the I&O spearhead project. The results can be utilised nationwide.

 

Applied research

In the field of multidisciplinary rehabilitation, special effort has been put on the development of applied research at the regional and national level. The aim of applied research is to help in developing new rehabilitation methods and operating models and to increase knowledge of the usability and effectiveness of rehabilitation methods. The activities are practice-oriented and are carried out in collaboration with regional operators and researchers in the field of rehabilitation.

REcoRDI project logo

Platform ecosystem for strengthening RDI activities in multidisciplinary rehabilitation (REcoRDI)

There is a substantial and ever-growing unmet need for rehabilitation worldwide. This leads to question how to maximize applied research relevance in order to enhance knowledge translation into clinical practice. Effective implementation strategies for the complex world of rehabilitation are urgently required. It is time to collectively plan next steps to develop applied research in multidisciplinary rehabilitation.

The aim of the project is to create a roadmap for applied research on multidisciplinary rehabilitation adapting a platform ecosystem approach. The project will develop applied research activities, strengthen connections to networks and platform ecosystem for research results utilization and increase the impact of applied research in the area of multidisciplinary rehabilitation. The project is conducted in collaboration between JAMK University of Applied Sciences, Jyväskylä and Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, Helsinki, during years 2019-2022.

At the first stage, an evaluation of the current state of applied research in rehabilitation and identification of knowledge needs in Finland is conducted. Survey for researchers is conducted in winter 2020, followed by focus group interviews for professionals and providers in rehabilitation in spring 2020.

Based on these activities, an ecosystem for rehabilitation and a roadmap for research, development and innovation (RDI) activities are created during 2020-2021. The roadmap is created through a rehabilitation ecosystems developed in both the Jyväskylä and Helsinki metropolitan regions in Finland. The resulting roadmap will reflect the focus of future applied research activities and actions needed to increase the quality of applied research in multidisciplinary rehabilitation.

The actions in REcoRDI project will strengthen the rehabilitation research and provide an ecosystem model for effective RDI activities that can later be utilized in other research organizations. Knowledge generated in the project will create better services and solutions that enable participation and increase wellbeing in everyday life of rehabilitees, improving also competence of companies and organizations involved in ecosystem. 

More information:

Merja Rantakokko, Principal Researcher
Rehabilitation and Social Studies
School of Health and Social Studies
+358406560058
 

We educate hundreds of experts in multidisciplinary rehabilitation every year

JAMK is an important educator in the wellness sector. We educate nearly 200 solid experts in multidisciplinary rehabilitation each year: physiotherapists, occupational therapists, rehabilitation counsellors and Bachelors of Social Services. Additionally, we educate professionals in the fields of nursing and music. We also offer master’s degree studies in multidisciplinary rehabilitation and sport and exercise physiotherapy.

Education in the field of rehabilitation is constantly developed to make it even more flexible and diverse so as to make the combination of work and studies necessary for continuous learning possible and cost-effective. The Multidisciplinary Rehabilitation area of strength also provides diploma courses and specialisation studies in the form of continuing education to address the evolving needs of working life.

Sport and Exercise Physiotherapy, Master's Degree

As a specialist in sport and exercise physiotherapy you develop knowledge and skills to apply research-based methods to enhance advanced sport performance and prevent injuries as well as to use exercise as means to promote health and wellbeing.

Contact information

Malkki Pertti

Malkki Pertti

Yksikönjohtaja, Director
HYVI Hallinto, Administration
Hyvinvointi, School of Health and Social Studies
+358406682751
Immonen Mirja

Immonen Mirja

Päällikkö monialainen kuntoutus, Head of Department Multidisciplinary Rehabilitation
HYVI Kuntoutus- ja sosiaaliala, Rehabilitation and Social Studies
Hyvinvointi, School of Health and Social Studies
+358405478949