Tampere University Hospital–Buddy Healthcare collaboration bears fruit: introducing TaysPolku

How BuddyCare was integrated in an existing internal system within a hospital.

As healthcare is becoming increasingly digitalized and referrals to treatment are migrating to mobile applications, hospitals & clinic do need to find solutions fitting into their existing systems. Buddy Healthcare and Tampere University Hospital (Tays) joined forces to create a new integrated service called TaysPolku.

The TaysPolku service was built on their BuddyCare software, and redesigned to be integrated into the wider patient systems that existed already in Tampere University Hospital.

The service functions as BuddyCare does by making referrals to treatment more efficient by providing patients with treatment-related instructions and reminders about upcoming appointments through a mobile application.
TaysPolku was designed for both patients and healthcare professionals. The app allows patients to access information about their treatment, get reminders of upcoming appointments and complete treatment-related forms. Patients can also use the app to contact healthcare professionals.

“At the Tampere University Hospital, we strive to keep our patients as well informed as possible as effectively as possible. We believe that the TaysPolku service, created in collaboration with Buddy Healthcare, will bring speed and efficiency to referrals,” explains Eija Tomás, Chief Administrative Physician.

The TaysPolku mobile tool is particularly well suited for referring patients to specialists. In the first phase, TaysPolku was adopted in gastroenterology, urology, otorhinolaryngology and musculoskeletal diseases. Within urology, neuromodulation patients will be added to TaysPolku in phase 3 in the autumn. Within otorhinolaryngology, ear disease patients will be added in August.

Furthermore, in autumn TaysPolku will be expanded to neurology and rehabilitation, pediatric surgery and child psychiatry. Tampere University Hospital is looking to add even more specialties to the service later on!


“With the TaysPolku system, our patients are able to use the services at their convenience and check their instructions for care as many times as they need to. Thanks to these digital services, we, at the hospital are better able to focus on caring for those patients who need our personal attention, explains Niina Ruopsa, Chief Development Physician at Tampere University Hospital.

The TaysPolku was the first wider integration project that Buddy Healthcare has conducted with its customer to this extent.

“Our collaboration with Tampere University Hospital gave us a unique opportunity to build a service on BuddyCare in close collaboration with experts on their clinical units & university’s technicians. It’s been an intensive process and we are seeing promising results. TaysPolku is serving its purpose”, says Jussi Määttä, CEO of Buddy Healthcare.

For professionals, the TaysPolku service provides an easy overview of patients and their progress on their treatment paths. BuddyCare on its own aims to make referrals to treatment and consultation more efficient. At the same time, it allows a clinic to cut down the number of phone calls and provide professionals with information on any unread instructions or unattended appointments. The new operating model gives us more time to attend to the patients who most need our guidance. We want patients to be in the right place at the right time, properly prepared.

TaysPolku service has in-built treatment paths that follow the care instructions and practices of Tampere University Hospital. During the implementation phase, we also carried out a large integration project where TaysPolku was integrated with key patient systems at Tampere University Hospital. The integrations enable us to automate several different professionally designed functionalities in TaysPolku.

Founded in 2016, Buddy Healthcare is a health technology company specialized in referral software. Buddy Healthcare services are available in 12 hospitals in Finland and 3 hospitals in Germany.

Tays Central Hospital in Tampere is a university hospital belonging to the Pirkanmaa Hospital District.