Co-operation with the University of Helsinki
The company behind Pawesomer is called ITfox. Its origins are in Finland and roots in Scandinavian culture where we appreciate pets as family members. Here at Pawesomer we are not merely after fleeting trends but want to base our work on sustainability and factual information. This is why we started to cooperate with the University of Helsinki Veterinary Teaching Hospital from the very beginning of the project. In fact, by using Pawesomer, you’ll benefit their research efforts that aim to help all kinds of animals.
At he very beginning of the project, Anssi contacted Anna Hielm-Björkman, (DVM, PhD, docent, CVA (IVAS), leader of the DogRisk research group) who is a senior researcher, PI (principal investigator) and teacher at the department on Equine and Small Animal Medicine at the Veterinary Faculty in the University of Helsinki in Finland. Together, they created a base for what would become Pawesomer. Anna has created the Chronic Pain Index for Dogs, a tool for measuring and evaluating pain in dogs. The digital version of HCPI can now be found exclusively in Pawesomer.
How the idea formed
The idea behind Pawesomer was born when Anssi, our CEO and founder, was walking in the woods with his dog Pertti. A wish to have a comprehensive tool for taking better care of Pertti resulted in what is now known as Pawesomer. After two years of development, the service now includes a multitude of tools for keeping our beloved pets healthy by monitoring their well-being.
Our team
In our team we have professionals from diverse background, including veterinary medicine.
Anssi Ruuhikorpi (CEO & Founder has decades of SW engineering experience) has worked on product lifecycle management in different developmental roles since 1995. Before ITfox, his last role was as the senior software engineer development lead at Microsoft. He has world class knowledge of what is expected from first-rate product lifecycle and product data management.
Anna Hielm-Björkman (DVM, PhD, docent, CVA (IVAS), leader of the DogRisk research group) works as a senior researcher, PI (principal investigator) and teacher at the department on Equine and Small Animal Medicine at the Veterinary Faculty in the University of Helsinki in Finland. She has developed the HCPI pain index for dogs, and it is now digitally available only for Pawesomer users. Her main areas of interest are chronic diseases and nutrition.
Duncan X. Lascelles (BSc, BVSc, PhD, MRCVS, CertVA, DSAS(ST), DECVS, DACVS) is the Professor of Surgery and Pain Management at North Carolina State University. Dr. Lascelles’s research interests include clinical measurement of acute and chronic pain, understanding the basis of pain in animals and improving methods of alleviation of pain in animals. He has developed the Feline Musculoskeletal Pain Index (FMPI), a tool for scoring the degree to which a cat is in pain, which will soon be available on Pawesomer.
Our team also includes several other team members with varying areas of expertise, such as software engineering, graphic design, UI and UX design, and communications. We also employ various trainees who have all helped turn Pawesomer into something great.