Timo Lakka ([email protected])
Timo Lakka is a Professor of Medical Physiology at University of Eastern Finland, a Specialist in Internal Medicine, and an Adjunct Professor of Public Health. His research is focused on the identification of individuals at increased risk of overweight, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases and the prevention of these diseases and conditions by increasing physical activity and improving diet since childhood. He is a Principal Investigator in the Physical Activity and Nutrition in Children (PANIC) study and a Co-Principal Investigator in the Stop Diabetes (StopDia) study and the Dose Responses to Exercise Training (DR’s EXTRA) study. He has also acted as a senior researcher in many other large-scale lifestyle intervention studies, long-term epidemiological follow-up studies, and wide international genetic-epidemiological studies. He has published over 360 scientific articles in international journals, and these articles have almost 60 000 citations and a h-index of 106 (Google Scholar). He has supervised 24 doctoral theses and is a supervisor of another 13 doctoral students.
Tuomas Rissanen ([email protected])
My main research focuses on interventional treatment of coronary artery disease, particularly drug-coated balloon (DCB) technology, stent-free PCI strategies, and the treatment of patients at high bleeding risk. I lead and participate in national and international clinical studies evaluating novel coronary intervention strategies with the aim of improving long-term clinical outcomes and safety. Email: [email protected]. p. +368-50-5998022.
I am responsible for specialist training in cardiology and participate in undergraduate cardiology teaching for third- and sixth-year medical students (LT3 and LT6) at the University of Eastern Finland.
Ulla-Greta Mikkonen ([email protected])
In my doctoral research, I study a self-care preparedness index and its associations with the health-related quality of life, health, and depressive symptoms in primary health care patients (Participatory Patient Care Planning in Primary Care 4PHC trial) and the effects of motivational self-care promotion on depressive symptoms in type 2 diabetes. In the DEPKuopio study, we will examine the effects of multicomponent motivational lifestyle intervention as a supportive treatment for depression in primary health care.
Venla Okkonen ([email protected])
As a researcher, I’m interested in worker well-being in the changing working life. My thinking is based on critical psychology, intersectionality, and contextualized understanding of psychological phenomena.
I work as a university teacher in psychology, teaching history of psychology, discursive and narrative methodology, and professional ethics.
My PhD research explores the moral orders of worker well-being and the ways in which the ideal working subject is constructed in worker well-being interventions. I focus on well-being approaches where mental well-being is understood and acted upon as a biological and embodied phenomenon, such as self-tracking and neuroscience.
Prior to my PhD research, I studied work-related burnout as a rupture in the life course in a research project led by Maija Korhonen.
Xingyue Su ([email protected])
Responsible AI-Assisted Elder Care in Finland and China: Trust, Sustainability and Occupational Well-Being of Professional Care Workers
My research explores the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and welfare technologies into gerontological social work practice, with a focus on enhancing the occupational well-being of care workers in elder care. I am interested in how technology-enhanced social work interventions can support older adults. My work adopts a comparative perspective, primarily examining practices and policies in Finland and China, to better understand how digital interventions and AI-supported care influence both care outcomes and workforce sustainability in aging societies.
AI for Mindful Care and Aging (2026-2029)
Project Researcher
AI is viewed as a promising and inevitable development in home care, with the potential to tackle challenges linked to societal aging, such as diverse care needs, workforce shortages, and inefficiencies in welfare systems. However, its implementation raises ethical concerns about how AI may produce or exacerbate vulnerability through exclusion, marginalization, labor exploitation, and emerging risks for older adults and care workers. This project examines how vulnerability is constructed, negotiated, and practiced in using and implementing AI-automated home care in Estonia, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. It focuses on four empirical dimensions: (1) how AI, aging, and care are represented in regulatory frameworks; (2) how innovation leaders frame user needs, opportunities, risks, and worst-case scenarios; (3) how older adults perceive and experience AI in home care; and (4) how care workers respond to AI integration in the workplace. We propose “vulnerability intersections” as a conceptual approach to examine how vulnerability emerges at the intersection of biographical histories, social identities, and shifting structural conditions. The project draws on political economy, life course theory, intersectionality, and the sociology of translation to enable a multi-level understanding of vulnerability as socially and institutionally produced.
Empirically, the study examines policy texts, expert interviews with innovation leaders, and life course narratives of older adults and care workers, using qualitative methods. A critical and comparative perspective informs analysis, ensuring sensitivity to cross-country variations in sociocultural contexts. The project will generate new knowledge on how AI-driven automation shapes care experiences, labor, inequality, and welfare systems, while informing policy and practice by identifying structural disadvantages and highlighting promising and problematic responses to vulnerability. To maximize societal impact, we will implement a targeted communication, dissemination, and stakeholder engagement strategy to involve policymakers, practitioners, and the public in support of strengthening social resilience of older adults and care workers and fostering ethical and responsible use of AI. An interdisciplinary team of early-stage, junior, and senior researchers will conduct the research, supported by capacity building and academic exchange activities.