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Über
Reima Suomi is a professor of Information Systems Science at the University of Turku, Finland, and a part-time Professor at Huazhong Normal University, Wuhan, Hubei, China. He is also a Docent at the University of Oulu, Finland. Suomi has had extended research periods abroad at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, and the University of Münster, Germany. His main research interests focus on healthcare information systems, inter-organizational information systems, eGovernment, and various governance structures for information systems management. He has over 400 scientific publications, in addition to his active engagement in popular press. For 18 years, he has led the work on the conference series „Well-being in the Information Society (WIS)“.
Reima Suomi has been studying digital government for over 30 years, with activities at local, regional, and national levels.
At the local level, he has been involved in several research projects, including developing the role of libraries for local information services, creating key indicators for quality of life in cities, and developing city-level information system strategies.
At the regional level, Professor Suomi has drafted several innovation and economic growth strategies for the South-West Finland region, both in research projects and through the New Technology Foundation, a think tank in South-West Finland. He has also studied the role of science parks and data centers in regional development.
At the national level (Finland), he has participated in planning national digital solutions for taxation and healthcare. A notable success story in which he participated was the development of the electronic prescription system for Finland, which has become a key productivity and quality component in Finnish healthcare. He was also a principal investigator in a national project aimed at improving digital business models across all sectors of society, including cities. Professor Suomi has led several sub-projects in the field of waste management, aiming at good practices in the circular economy. Additionally, he has been the Finnish correspondent and investigator in several EU-wide projects run by Bonn-based Empirica Gesellschaft für Kommunikations- und Technologieforschung mbH on energy efficiency in houses and telecommunication costs.
As part of his railway enthusiasm, Professor Suomi has written scientific articles on the role of railways in social and economic development, comparing railway and internet revolutions at different phases.
From 2006 to 2022, Reima Suomi was the founder and General Chair of the biannual multidisciplinary conference Well-Being in the Information Society. He served as the vice-chair of the Baltic Region Healthy Cities Association, a WHO collaboration center in Finland, from 2004 to 2020.
Professor Reima Suomi is visiting the Department of Information Systems within the research group „Digitale Mittelstadt der Zukunft“.