Abstract
2CARE4EU is the common name for joint activities of four EU funded projects that share their focus on digitally enabled integrated care. Four Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) projects have joined forces to reflect together on common lessons learned. INCAREHEART focuses on developing innovative ICT-enabled integrated care solutions to advance multidisciplinary health and care for patients with chronic heart failure. CareMatrix project aims at procuring integrated care solutions designed to challenge the health market to develop innovative technology for People with Multimorbidity (PMM). PMM are aging populations who have two or more chronic health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and depression. ROSIA is procuring a comprehensive service to patients in need of remote rehabilitation, enabled by cutting-edge technology, new care pathways and community support. Last, but not least, eCARE is a European project that aims to deliver disruptive digital solutions for the prevention and comprehensive management of frailty. Their goal is to encourage independent living, wellbeing and to relieve health and care services budget pressure.
What is it required for the integrated care principles and practice to be advanced when developing personalised IT tools? From the people centred perspective, it is agreed by all the PCPs that the IT systems need to be based on the actual needs of its future end users, particularly patients, their caregivers and healthcare professionals. A robust, iterative, co-creation process is required to assure that future users accept the final solutions. An integrated care approach thus implies involving stakeholders as early as possible in the development, after careful needs identification (that will need to be updated through the different phases of the PCP implementation. Some useful tools for advancing integration of care is the shared care plan. Training has been highlighted as key to favour the empowerment of people living with different conditions, both in terms of the self-management of their conditions and also for understanding how technology works and learn how to use it. When artificial intelligence is located at the backend of the IT solution, trustworthy will be key for its future implementation.
When addressing the increased continuity and coordination, support given by IT tools might involve data sharing, common access to electronic health records and individual care plans, agenda sharing, tools to facilitate multidisciplinary meetings of different profiles of healthcare professionals, among others. Again, involving real end users in the co-creation process appears to be critical to assure the personalisation of the systems and its future suitability and acceptance.
Some challenges have been identified, being highlighted the different legal and regulatory frameworks in the EU countries, that will need to be considered for the future scalability and adaptability of the IT solutions. Efficient leadership and management are key to assure that the implementation of personalised health technologies can actually be the bases for advancing the integration of care. Digitally enabled integrated care is expected to increase in the near future and 2CARE4EU lessons learned can hopefully guide other projects and initiatives.