Why Norwegian Hospital Trust Chose to Outsource Their Web and Mobile Development

We’ve just started our partnership with Innlandet Hospital Trust, one of the leading medical centers in Norway with 10 divisions spread over 41 sites in the counties of Hedmark and Oppland. In order to better understand why and how Western European companies choose Ukrainian software development service providers, we’ve talked to Øystein Eiring, Psychiatrist, cand. mag, PhDc and Head of Department of Knowledge Services at Innlandet Hospital Trust.

Intersog (I.): Øystein, what was the key driver for making a decision to outsource your mobile and web app development?

Øystein Eiring (Ø.E.): Our starting point for the mobile app development was that we wanted an eager, competent, innovative company that would quickly grasp the conceptual framework and prove (within a dialogue lasting a few weeks only) to be able to concretize the project idea better than the competitors. We wanted somebody to work on that responsively and efficiently, to prioritize our requests, and make a wholehearted effort to understand the background and the expectations within a short timeframe. We looked for companies that we believed would be able to deliver what we are looking for and evaluated them based on formal criteria, including quality of the initial response and follow-up. Value for money was important, but did not exclude Norwegian companies from the search per se.

I.: And how did you find Intersog?

Ø.E.: We searched the web for companies in selected European countries, companies with a good track record that would make the right partner. We contacted providers in a number of countries and Ukraine, being one of the main outsourcing hubs in Europe, was one of them.

I.: And eventually you chose us as your development partner. Why?

Ø.E.: Given that IP rights were not a problem and a service could be delivered in accordance with the ICT platform that is used in the specialist services in Norway, three reasons were crucial:  steep learning curve, insight and interest in the subject matter demonstrated in the proposal and in discussions, and the thoroughness and effort to preliminarily concretize the ideas in the proposal and a delivery plan.

I.: What're your expectations from partnering with us?

Ø.E.: The project is about developing an innovative tool that patients and doctors can use together to make better decisions with regards to individual patient treatment concerns. The web and mobile apps will be used in situations where it's not possible to say that a particular treatment is the best one, and where there're also alternative treatment solutions in question. The apps should not only help make better decisions, but monitor and visualize the results of these decisions, and enable re-evaluation regularly in terms of importance for the individual patient. For example, it will be used in selecting the best treatment for a chronic disease, and the follow-up of that treatment. We believe this partnership will help us invent a genuinely new solution that would astonish patients and clinicians, and facilitate medical treatment decision making in a radically user-friendly and well thought-through way. We expect this partnership to be based on insight and interest in the basic idea and its theoretical foundation, competencies in IT and UX design and all the creative energy, enthusiasm and ability to create concrete solutions out of general ideas that Intersog and we can mobilize together.

About Øystein Eiring:

Øystein Eiring is a psychiatrist, cand. mag, PhDc and Head of Department of Knowledge Services at Innlandet Hospital Trust. He is the editor of the mental health part of the Norwegian Electronic Library for Health, the project responsible for knowledge support in the Southern and Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority.  Øystein has also led a number of e-health innovation projects in Norway.