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Implementation of innovative working methods in primary care

New products and new ways of working are needed in order to meet the future challenges in healthcare.
The ability of healthcare professionals to create and innovate new products and working methods is however underutilized. Närhälsan Färgelanda, Primary Health Care Centre, has launched an innovation project in collaboration with private companies that aims at empowering healthcare professionals to create, innovate and develop new products and working methods that meet the future needs.

Innovation Summary

Innovation Overview

Healthcare is an essential part of the welfare system but faces many challenges due to demographic changes which lead to a decreasing number of working-age people having to support an increasing number of elderly people, and since lifestyle-related diseases are expected to increase. A lack of healthcare professionals is also expected. In order to meet these challenges, resources need to be used efficiently, and innovative working methods and new products need to be developed.

Primary care is the first contact point for patients in need of healthcare. On top of high requirements regarding availability, new products and ways of working need to be developed in primary care. It has been difficult to establish strategic innovation practices in current primary care systems due to many changes taking place simultaneously, and a general focus on productivity. Key to solving this problem is taking better advantage of the knowledge and creativity of both healthcare professionals and patients when creating new work practices and developing new products and services.

The innovation is a testbed that Närhälsan Färgelanda has established. The testbed is based on the needs of primary care, and offers an arena where healthcare professionals, patients and industry partners can collaborate around designing future welfare services based on service design. The work is conducted in collaboration with University West and financed by interregional funds from the EU. The collaboration with University West makes it is possible to explore new products and work practices, while future healthcare professionals (i.e., students at the university) gain access to a novel learning environment. In this way, the testbed becomes an arena for learning among representatives from the industry, primary care and academia.

The development of the testbed follows several steps. In the first step, healthcare professionals, patients and industry representatives are interviewed in order to identify the existing needs and demands. In the second step, a collaboration is initiated with external partners with expertise in, for example, information technology and law, in order to facilitate the creation of transparent and standardized work practices, which also consider ethical issues. In the third step, structures and flows associated with the work practices are established in the testbed. In the fourth step, products, services and working methods are evaluated and explored in collaboration with academia.

The testbed provides companies with opportunities to test their products in a primary care environment with access to the expertise of healthcare professionals. In a longer perspective, society gains access to new products and services that are specifically developed and evaluated for matching the needs in primary care, and which can contribute to improving accessibility, quality and resource utilization. The insights and experiences gained in this project will be disseminated regionally, nationally and internationally, since there is limited information available about establishing testbeds in primary care in collaboration with academia and industry partners.

Innovation Description

What Makes Your Project Innovative?

In healthcare, testbeds are considered tools that can be used for developing innovative products and services that use healthcare resources more efficiently. Digitalization will inevitably change the way healthcare is provided, which requires cooperation between different actors.

As new and more complex technologies are introduced in society, the use of testbeds becomes more frequent in the private and public sectors. In primary care, however, there is only limited experience from using testbeds that utilize the knowledge of healthcare professionals and patients through collaboration with academia and industry partners.

What is the current status of your innovation?

The project has recently started, but Närhälsan Färgelanda Health Primary Centre has already become a more attractive workplace and attracted more applicants to vacancies. The staff group has also become more stable.

Innovation Development

Collaborations & Partnerships

The project is funded by the European Union, Närhälsan Färgelanda Primary Health Care Centre, University West, the Innovation Platform and the Primary Health Care Research and Development Unit in Västra Götaland.
All levels within the Region Västra Götaland support the project. Human resources have been added to the health centre, and the testbed has attract attention in newspapers, radio and social media.
Private actors also show great interest in testing products in the testbed.

Users, Stakeholders & Beneficiaries

The project has recently started, but Närhälsan Färgelanda Health Primary Centre has already become a more attractive workplace and attracted more applicants to vacancies. The staff group has also become more stable.

Innovation Reflections

Results, Outcomes & Impacts

The testbed has attracted considerable attention and interest among stakeholders connected to primary healthcare from all over Sweden. The testbed is still at an early stage of development, and results are not yet available. Expected results are increased learning regarding how products and services can be developed through collaboration and continuous evaluation. Several stakeholders are expected to benefit from the development of innovative working methods in the testbed, including the society as a whole, primary care, healthcare professionals, patients, future healthcare professionals (i.e., students), as well as the industry.

Challenges and Failures

Political support is required to create a sustainable testbed environment. Resources also have to be added over time so that it becomes more than just “one project”. Digitalization adds complexity regarding, e.g., handling of data, compatibility, and server location; especially when products are to be tested in a real environment. In many cases, there are no guidelines for how these situations should be handled. Relevant stakeholders are, however, interested in solving the problems and work is ongoing, e.g., regarding the development of guidelines for data storage and technical solutions.

Conditions for Success

For this innovation to be successful, it requires 1) the support from the management at different levels in creating creative and reflective work processes; 2) that infrastructure and guidelines that support innovative work at the health centre are created; 3) policy support in the form of remuneration systems that promote innovations in primary care, and 4) interested and motivated staff members who understand the benefits of developing new products and services, and who are supported by the management.

Replication

The goal is to gather as much knowledge as needed for establishing other testbeds with other areas of expertise in Primary Health care centres located in the same municipality, region or elsewhere in the country.

Lessons Learned

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Successfully creating a testbed takes time, and therefore requires patience, and the attitude that difficulties can always be overcome. A team with members with different skills is needed, as well as a health centre with motivated employees who dare to try new ways of working, and who are supported by the management and political leaders.

Supporting Videos

Year: 2019
Level of Government: Local government

Status:

  • Identifying or Discovering Problems or Opportunities - learning where and how an innovative response is needed
  • Generating Ideas or Designing Solutions - finding and filtering ideas to respond to the problem or opportunity
  • Developing Proposals - turning ideas into business cases that can be assessed and acted on

Innovation provided by:

Date Published:

24 July 2020

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