Norway’s innovative medtech industry makes all of this, and much more, possible. The country has pioneered some truly groundbreaking medical technology, improving the health of patients around the world.

“Norway is a highly technological society and has the money to invest in medtech solutions. In some areas, such as ultrasound, we have led the world for decades. Today, young startups and scaleups are in a strong position to go out there and compete in the global marketplace,” states Sindre Holme, Head of Communications at the Norway Health Tech cluster.

Some 40 years ago, researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) invented medical ultrasound using a Doppler device to measure blood flow velocities in the heart. Prior to this, doctors had to insert catheters into the heart to diagnosis most cardiac conditions. Now, thanks to NTNU’s research, tens of thousands of non-invasive echocardiograms are performed daily around the world.

Read the article series on Norway’s pivotal role in medical ultrasound

The research, based on petroleum pipeline surveillance technology, spawned a plethora of medical imaging innovations for diagnostics, precision medicine and surgery. Today Norway’s strong medical research and startup environment remains a pillar in the global commercial success and widespread clinical adoption of ultrasound and medical imaging.

One major commercial success is Medistim, a company whose technology increases precision in cardiac, vascular and transplant surgery. Medistim is a pioneer in transit time flow measurement (TTFM), which is used during coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) to detect graft failure.

In an innovative twist, the company combines TTFM with high-frequency ultrasound imaging (HFUS). Adding TTFM to ultrasound is like combining the clarity of a map with the precision of GPS, ensuring surgeons navigate complex procedures with accuracy. Surgeons receive instant feedback from TTFM’s quantitative data and ultrasound’s spatial detail.

GE Vingmed Ultrasound, a market leader in cardiovascular and hand-held ultrasound, exemplifies the technology’s global growth. Acquired in 2002 by US-based GE HealthCare, Vingmed continues to conduct ultrasound R&D and manufacturing in its Norwegian facilities for a worldwide market.

In addition, Exact Therapeutics uses ultrasound to enable targeted drug delivery in oncology. The company’s acoustic cluster therapy (ACT®) targets pancreatic cancer, which poses medical challenges due to its aggressive nature. Clinical trials are ongoing.

The potential of AI to improve patient outcomes is enormous, and Norway has many examples of this.

The healthtech startup HoloCare has developed software that creates interactive 3D holograms of an individual patient’s organ, allowing surgeons to precisely plan and personalise surgeries to the patient’s unique anatomy. As a result, procedures are shorter, patient safety is improved, and surgical complications are fewer.

HoloCare has achieved several milestones in recent months. First, it has gained UKCA and CE certification, necessary for commercialisation in the UK and EU, respectively. This has enabled the initial launch of HoloCare software in five hospitals. In addition, the company has been awarded EUR 8.9 million from Horizon Europe for further development of its technology. It is also one of the pilot companies to be awarded the official Norwegian origin label, Made in Norway.

Back in Norway, Bærum Hospital uses AI to quickly diagnose potential bone fractures. When patients arrive in the emergency department, AI is used to assess the X-ray taken of the bone, providing a diagnosis within two minutes. This saves a great deal of time and resources, as 70 per cent of patients who suspect that they have a bone fracture do not.

Bulbitech delivers AI-powered eye-tracking technology that screens for ophthalmological and neurological disorders. The BulbiCAM takes snapshots of the eye 400 times per second while the BulbiHUB assesses the data. The solution is based on the medical finding that deviation in eye movements and pupillary response can detect certain diseases, enabling early diagnosis of diseases from glaucoma to Parkinson’s before functional loss occurs.

In a different use of AI, virtual reality (VR) is being applied in a number of exciting ways. One company, Connect the Dots, delivers a VR tool to train health workers to handle life-threatening situations. In the mental health space, Fornix delivers VR tools for exposure therapy, treating conditions from generalised anxiety disorder to specific phobias.

Several decades ago, researchers at NTNU developed microscopic beads of uniform size which, when magnetised, could be used to separate biological materials with extremely high precision. Called Dynabeads, the innovation is now used in 80 per cent of all cancer genome sequencing in Europe. Dynabeads are still produced in Norway and available from Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Materials for quality control of laboratory analytical instruments are another groundbreaking innovation from Norway. The company SERO has been a pioneer and leader in quality control materials since the 1950s, when control sera were first developed by Professor Lorentz Eldjarn at Oslo University Hospital. Thirteen years later, SERO was formally established, launching the world's first commercially available control serum, Seronorm®.

In the 1990s, a Norwegian engineer solved a major healthcare problem: pressure ulcers in hospitalised patients. At the request of Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen, he developed the concept and prototypes of a curved, automated turning mattress for hospital beds.

Twenty years later the concept was revived and Tidewave Medical was founded. The Tidewave™ Mattress keeps a patient’s body moving continuously to prevent pressure ulcers, but the patient doesn’t feel it, hear it or awaken from it. By using this mattress, an astonishing 95 per cent of pressure ulcers can be prevented.

Norway has excelled in medtech for years with its cutting-edge research, vibrant incubators and innovative startups and scaleups. Now, creation of a competitive global industry is underway. Notably, the government has launched a national export initiative on health and life science and will invest EUR 6 billion. Its plans are laid out in the Roadmap for the health industry.