This wrap-up has been compiled by the Programme
PROGRAMME 2021-2027
Priority   1 Innovative societies
Objective  1.2 Responsive public services
Mobile Hospital:
Wrap-up of project achievements
Hospital visits can be frightening when children and their families do not know what to expect. The Interreg project Mobile Hospital brought together hospitals, universities, healthcare professionals and families from Finland, Poland and Sweden to develop a multilingual, child-friendly app to tackle this. The app allows children to explore common hospital situations before a visit, helps parents prepare them and gives healthcare staff a consistent way to explain what will happen.
Highlights
Mobile Hospital
Highlights
Mobile Hospital
On the way towards more structured, child-friendly pre-counselling, the project Mobile Hospital developed in particular:
- Mobile Hospital app, which helps prepare children and parents for hospital visits, reduces anxiety, and supports hospital staff in guiding paediatric patients
Download link
Project Details
Project type
Small project
Project duration
August 2023 – July 2025
Contribution to the EUSBSR
PA Health
Budget in million EURO
0.31 total // 0.25 ERDF // 0.00 Norway
Involved Countries
Lead Partner: Finland
Project Partners: Poland // SwedenÂ
Mobile Hospital appÂ
Mobile Hospital app
A multilingual digital preparation tool for children, parents, and staff
The Mobile Hospital app supports children and families before and during their stay in hospital. The app combines evidence-based psychological knowledge with a user-friendly design, ensuring accessibility and adaptability for small children and their families.
Partners from Finland, Sweden, and Poland exchanged clinical practices and jointly identified the most common procedures and examinations (12 pathways), aligning the content across different hospital environments. This ensured that the app is adaptable, culturally sensitive, and relevant across healthcare systems. The tool was co-created with active engagement from children, parents, and hospital staff, who helped assess needs, as well as pilot and shape the app through real experiences. For example, the animal character featured in the app was selected based on children’s preferences.
The app uses 360° hospital images, videos, audio, and simple text to virtually guide children through experiences from arrival to examinations and treatments. By explaining and demonstrating what will happen, who they will meet, and how each step works, it helps children overcome fears, build a sense of control, and even develop positive curiosity.
The app can be used at home to prepare children in advance, as well as by hospital staff already within the hospital, to prepare children and their parents for specific examinations or treatments. It is available in Finnish, English, Polish, and Swedish.
So far, feedback project received from by first users shows that the application really works:
- 91% of children rated the app as good, really good, or brilliant
- 100% of nurses found the app useful for paediatric patients.
- Parents highlighted reduced anxiety, better preparation, and improved understanding of procedures.
With its psychoeducational content and interactive nature, the application makes the hospital experience for families significantly more supportive, thus helping also the treatment and recovery process.Â
Get inspired
Interreg pays off
Solutions in use
Interreg pays off: Solutions in use
The Mobile Hospital app is already helping children and parents prepare for hospital visits beyond the project itself. Available in English, Finnish, Swedish and Polish, the web-based application is now used by hospitals across the partner countries and can be accessed from participating hospitals’ websites. Building on the shared experience of partners, the team in Turku also developed an interactive game version, allowing children to explore the hospital environment in a playful and safe way before their visit.
The project also inspired interest in expanding the app to additional procedures, new hospital departments, and broader use in child centred healthcare communication.
Thanks to Interreg funding and cooperation across borders, families in Finland, Sweden, and Polandcan finally explore hospital environments safely in advance, reducing anxiety and strengthening resilience during medical care.
In numbers
10 organisations cooperating across borders
35 organisations directly benefitting
In focus
Small stories, big gains
In focus: Small stories, big impact
The giraffe in hospital
How a virtual app prepares children for real-life hospital visits
A hospital visit can be filled with uncertainty. But for many children at Tyks Lighthouse Hospital in Turku, Finland, it is no longer the case. Before they even arrive, a friendly animated giraffe guides them on a virtual tour of the hospital, introducing them to the people, rooms and procedures they will encounter. “It’s funny, interesting, amusing – it’s fun to use!” say young patients, who arrive feeling less anxious and more confident about what lies ahead.
The playful Mobile Hospital app is the result of joint work of project partners in Finland, Poland and Sweden through the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme. The app presents different hospital scenarios, such as pneumonia, a broken leg or diabetes, and explains in a simple, child-friendly way what young patients can expect – with the cheerful giraffe as their guide. By making the hospital feel more familiar, the app helps children and parents in Finland, Poland and Sweden prepare for a visit, while making it easier for healthcare professionals to provide care in a calmer and more reassuring environment.
Project
Details
Project type
Small project
Project duration
August 2023 – July 2025
Contribution to the EUSBSR
PA Health
Budget in million
EURO
Involved
Countries
Lead partner
Project partners
