CoNurse digital support platform for healthcare professionals helps patients’ loved ones too

In the new call for proposals, the applied research programme of Enterprise Estonia allocated funds for Connected Health Cluster member Cognuse, who will use this grant to continue developing the CoNurse platform. CoNurse allows the convenient integration of nursing-related guidelines and protocols into the workflow, but it is also able to support, for example, the loved ones of a stroke patient.

The platform was primarily created to support medical nurses while performing procedures, but it has also become a tool for students and nurses who are just starting out as it helps them to effectively learn and reinforce procedures. For experienced nurses, CoNurse provides support when conducting and remembering critical, complex and infrequent procedures. The smartphone app also supports nurses in setting up medical devices and conducting tests.

“Medical staff often work in different departments and hospitals,” says Andres Mellik, Founder and CEO of Cognuse. “This can lead to situations where nurses have to perform procedures that they have not performed in a long time or perform procedures in a different way that they are used to. CoNurse supports nurses in new situations and communicates complex instructions in a simple and easy-to-understand way.”

In addition to medical nurses, the app supports loved ones. Within the framework of the pilot project on strokes, the CoNurse solution is used by the loved ones of stroke patients at Ida-Viru Central Hospital, who can use the app to find the necessary rehabilitation exercises and instructions to support home rehabilitation. Not only does CoNurse reassure nurses and loved ones, its use also significantly reduces deviations from treatment, medical errors and complications in the home environment.

As part of the applied research programme, the CoNurse solution will be upgraded with a model that helps identify when a nurse needs extra support to carry out a procedure. For example, the model takes into consideration the complexity of the procedure, the experience and fatigue levels of the nurse and a number of other factors.

Close cooperation with Cybernetica is underway for the continued development of the app in order to map CoNurse’s current status and model its future solution. The project will involve interviews with nurses and nursing managers from several hospitals, including the Johns Hopkins Hospital in the US and Bamberg Academy in Germany. The goal is to create an advisory board of nurses that will draw on practical experience to contribute to the future development of CoNurse and provide ongoing feedback.

A total of €561,165.75 was allocated to the CoNurse project from the applied research programme of Enterprise Estonia. The project consists of applied research and product development. The project started in January this year and will end in December 2023.

The target group of Enterprise Estonia’s applied research programme comprises companies that are willing to invest in the development of innovative products and services and whose projects are carried out in growth areas of smart specialisation.

For more information, visit Enterprise Estonia’s website. 

The Connected Health Cluster led by Tehnopol Science and Business Park is Estonia’s biggest healthcare tech community, uniting health service providers, health tech companies and all other key interest groups in the field. The cluster’s support enables domestic cooperation projects and the export of health technological solutions to other countries. The activities of the cluster are co-financed by Enterprise Estonia.