Ambassador, investor and chief medical officer
Rehaboo!-like Electricity
After I graduated from Medical school from the University of Helsinki in 2003 I
made one of my dreams come through. I grabbed the opportunity to travel for a
year. I took my bag and went to South America. I had always been fascinated by
the vibrant lifestyle, the football stars and some of the literature of that
continent. I travelled in South America for a year and rented an apartment in
Buenos Aires as a “basecamp”. I got to know new cultures, I made new friends,
learned Spanish but I also did some voluntary work within medicine during my
time there.
When I returned to Finland from my year in South America I had my own
Doctors practice working in Helsinki. I enjoyed the patient work but I was always
looking for something more, a more vibrant and dynamic environment. So in
2006 I founded a medical company with a few colleagues. We started by doing
doctors house calls and later opened our own clinic in central Helsinki. We were
also among the first medical companies that offered virtual doctors visits in
Finland. I worked there as a physician and I also took care of our marketing and I
was also part of the board.
Those years were very intense, rewarding and successful. I had the opportunity
to see many different sides of how a company functions and the challenges of
growing rapidly. But it was always important for me to have my own Doctors
practice throughout the years. My patients consisted mainly of elderly people
and of patients within occupational healthcare but also of children.
During that time I realized how important preventive healthcare and
rehabilitation was. As a doctor you usually treat sick people but an even greater
beneficial effect for a society is within preventive and rehabilitative healthcare. I
saw how many of the problems were involved with the negative lifestyle choices
that patients made and how important motivation was. I saw how people who
were more physically active were both physically and mentally well. And I saw
how important motivation was in rehabilitation.
Joining Rehaboo! is for me another dream come through. Its being part of a
dynamic team in a vibrant environment working with preventive and
rehabilitative healthcare in a modern setting. The Rehaboo! game is easily
scalable, its fun, it motivates you to move and its definitely healthy for you. I have
no doubt that the future of exercising lies within the gaming industry. I think that
we are going to see an explosive growth in this field within the following years.
Mark Zuckerberg once said that facebook will be like electricity. He meant that it
will be so common that nobody reflects about being part of it anymore. That’s
also how I see computer induced exercising in the future and that is where we
are going with Rehaboo! See ya’ in the future!
Hannes Relander
Physician
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