Proud Talks is our conversation series where Proud Engineers’ experts unpack the ideas, challenges, and trends shaping their fields. This time, we sit down with Hille Hinsberg to talk about welfare technology and how the right digital solutions can make everyday life safer and more independent for people.
Welfare technology is about making support services work better for real people, not just gadgets. In health and social care, the biggest wins come from matching the right solution to a real need, in a specific service process, with a clear role for the people who use it and the people who deliver it.
That is the core of the work Hille Hinsberg does at Proud Engineers. “My work is essentially business analysis: understanding how care is provided today. Then we can design a better version of the social service, either home care or health-related, and show what could be improved by using data and digital solutions,” she explains. “The key is fitting the service and the digital solution together.”
What is welfare technology, at its core?
Welfare technology supports people’s everyday functioning and wellbeing. It doesn’t “treat” the person in the way medical devices do. Instead, it helps individuals stay safer, more independent, and better supported, often at home, and it helps care systems use limited resources more effectively.
A simple example: safety alarms and home sensors that can detect unusual inactivity or potential falls. These solutions don’t replace professional care, but they can reduce preventable emergencies and unnecessary ambulance calls, and help ensure help arrives faster when it’s needed.
This matters because population ageing isn’t a future scenario; it is happening now. More people are living longer, and many of them need support to keep living independently. Welfare technology is one of the ways to offer that support at scale.
Proud Engineers’ role: turning technology into real-world services
Proud Engineers works at the intersection of service design, analysis, and digital solutions. The focus is not building “a new gadget,” but helping organisations choose, evaluate, and implement solutions that actually work in practice.
This includes:
- Service analysis: understanding how a service works today, where the bottlenecks are, and what users and staff need.
- Service design: shaping improved service models that are modern, user-centred, and workable.
- Solution evaluation: assessing how well a technology fits a specific purpose, including its quality, usability, security, and legal readiness.
- Scaling and transferability: identifying under what conditions a solution used in one context can be adopted elsewhere.
This “fit” between service needs and digital capabilities is often what determines success or failure.
RAPIDE, testing what works, and for whom
In the RAPIDE research project funded by Horizon Europe, Proud Engineers experts contribute to the analysis and evaluation of digital tools intended for health systems. The project combines research with practical innovation: solutions may already exist, but the real question is how well they work for specific people, in specific conditions, and whether they can be scaled up.
A key part of the work is evaluating solutions based on information from providers, and translating that into practical conclusions: what the solution does well, how it fits internationally recognised standards and under what conditions it can be transferred to other settings.
In RAPIDE, the evaluation is connected to validation in real-life use cases in Slovenia, Italy, Malta, and the Netherlands. The project is also moving into patient-focused research: digital tools assessed by the team are given to patients for an extended period, and the study examines usability and whether the solution improves wellbeing.
The point is simple: technology can be “ready”, but still fail in real life, if it doesn’t fit the service model, the users’ abilities, the staff workflows, or the regulatory requirements. At the end of the project, we can describe a working model for hybrid care – that is, combining in-person and remote parts of patient pathways.
Standards, security, and legal readiness
Health and social care organisations often face a familiar dilemma: innovation is needed, but the risks feel high. Data protection, security, liability, and compliance requirements can create hesitation and sometimes lead to “doing nothing” because the fear of making a mistake is stronger than the motivation to improve.
Hille sees this as a balancing act: protecting sensitive personal data is essential, but it cannot become a reason to block the use of technology altogether. Clear standards and requirements help create trust – for public authorities, service providers, families, and end users – that a digital solution be responsibly adopted. Trust matters.
A practical example: rethinking how people can reach emergency help
One powerful illustration of welfare technology is current work related to emergency communication: exploring how tools like SOS-automated devices, video calls and real-time text (chat) can support calling for life-saving help.
In a typical emergency call, a person is expected to explain who they are, where they are, what happened, and what help they need. But there are situations where this is impossible — for example:
- people living alone who may not be able to reach their phone,
- victims of domestic violence who cannot safely make a phone call,
- people with hearing, speech, or vision impairments.
Improving the ways emergency services can receive and interpret a distress signal, by using the latest technology, is not a “nice to have.” It is a matter of accessibility, safety, and modern public services.
Where does Estonia stand?
Estonia is often seen as a digital leader, yet health and social care digitalisation still has significant room to grow. The Nordic countries are frequently described as a “mirror” and an inspiration: they have invested in welfare technology and service models over decades, creating systems where solutions can be implemented more consistently and reach vulnerable groups more reliably.
The difference is not just technology. The aim for better welfare is achieved through a long-term policy focus, funding, and a service model that supports adoption.
The future: more solutions, more need for “matching”
One clear trend is that the market will not get simpler. There will be more solutions and more variety, which makes the challenge of selecting and implementing the right ones even harder. Welfare technology becomes increasingly “tailor-made”: what fits one care processor user group may not fit another.
That also means a growing need for expertise that can:
- understand the real needs of users,
- design workable services,
- assess the quality of solutions,
- and help organisations adopt them responsibly.
Welfare technology must reduce inequality gaps, not widen them
A critical question is accessibility. If welfare technology becomes something only wealthier people can afford privately, it risks increasing inequality. In Hille’s view, ensuring access for high-need and high-risk groups is fundamentally a public responsibility that state and municipal service models and funding mechanisms need to address.
The goal should be clear: welfare technology should reduce inequality by making support more available, not create a two-tier system.
A personal motivation
For Hille, this work is not abstract. It is closely connected to the reality of ageing, including her own generation. “If I have the capacity and skills, I want to use them for this,” she says. “Not to watch from the side, but to contribute.”
This is what drives her work in welfare technology – helping people live with dignity, safety, and support, while also building services ready for the future that is already here.