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Professor Markku Savolainen, during his career as a researcher and practicing doctor of internal medicine, had seen the worsening of obesity problem around the world. Together, with a team of other experts of internal medicine, nutrition and behavior sciences, Markku wanted to develop an accessible and cost-effective solution for the obesity epidemic.
At the same time Harri Oinas-Kukkonen, Professor of information systems science, had been developing with his team Persuasive Systems Design method (PSD). IT-solutions that are designed with PSD method can influence users’ change of attitudes and behavior in sustained manner. Together with a large group of researchers and experts, Markku and Harri decided to join forces and develop a new approach to weight management, combining aspects of behavior change with PSD.
The result of the collaboration was Onnikka method, which has in large clinical studies proven to be very effective and safe for treating patients with obesity. Onnikka’s unique results have been reported quite widely in Finnish media.
Getting Onnikka available for larger audiences had been considered for a long time, and in the beginning of 2020 a program was started to look into Onnikka commercialization and distribution opportunities in a systematic way.
The program was funded by Business Finland and University of Oulu. The conclusion of the report was that Onnikka provides great benefits to all its stakeholders, and it has strong commercial potential.
As a result, Onnikka Health was founded at the end of 2021, with the aim of commercializing the solution. Onnikka Health has acquired exclusive commercial rights to Onnikka methodology and application and its further development.