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HELSEVEL-Gode og effektive helse-, omsorgs- og velferdstjenester

Dignity Care - Digitally supported Person-centered care systems

Alternative title: Dignity Care - Digitalt støttede personsentrerte helsetjenester

Awarded: NOK 16.5 mill.

The 10% of patients who need the most health and care services, account for 2/3 of the costs. These patients often have many diagnoses and long-term health care needs. Unfortunately, high costs are not a guarantee for quality of care, as these patients often experience that their patient journey is fragmented, and fraught with gaps and overlaps between care providers. A root cause of these quality challenges is disruption of the information flow. Despite increasing cross-organizational access to electronic health records, the digital information flow along the patient journey is still not a reality. There is a knowledge gap regarding how a shared digital workspace could support the collaboration between patients and professionals in complex patient journeys and which effects it could have Our project focuses on a system-wide DIGital support of DIGNITY for both patients and professionals. Dignity Care will collaborate closely with 10 patient partners who live with complex multiple conditions, as well as with relevant health and care services. Building on decades of previous experiences and research, we will design a digital workspace, called DigiTeam. DigiTeam will support a person-centred, integrated and proactive patient journey. DigiTeam will be tested in a randomized controlled trial, to see how it well it supports team work and the quality of the patient journey, compared to usual digital tools. Dignity Care will answer the questions of: What effects does a shared digital workspace have on quality of care? and What are the principles that underpin such effects? If successful, our results will contribute to a national quality standard for digital care collaboration tools.

Patients with multimorbidity and long-term and complex needs (CLNs) dominate the 10% who need 2/3 of care budgets. Yet, high cost does not equate high quality. Lack of coordination between professionals working with persons with CLNs causes fragmented, low quality of care (QoC) and inefficient resource use. A root cause is disruption of the information flow along the patient journey, as current e-health tools do not support concepts such as person-centered care, dynamic teams nor integrated care. Despite increasing cross-organizational access to electronic health records, the digital information flow along the patient journey is still not a reality. There is a knowledge gap regarding how a shared digital workspace could support complex patient journeys and which effects it would have. We build on decades of previous theoretical and empirical research on best practices for complex patient journeys. We test if a shared digital workspace which serves person-centered, integrated, and pro-active care (DigiTeam), will improve team performance and QoC in a randomized controlled trial (RCT). The RCT design ensures unbiased and high quality results. In recognition of how technical and social systems mutually affect each other, we adopt a socio-technical approach to a comprehensive process evaluation alongside the RCT. 10 patient partners, and representatives of the entire array of the national e-health ecosystem contribute to the design and execution of the RCT/ process evaluation. Dignity Care produces documentation of effects relevant to patients and professionals in a novel RCT-set up, which is realistic, yet safe for patients. If successful, our results will contribute to a minimum requirement list, and quality standards for digital care collaboration tools. Our proposal focuses on a system-wide DIGital support of DIGNITY for both patients and professionals.

Publications from Cristin

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Funding scheme:

HELSEVEL-Gode og effektive helse-, omsorgs- og velferdstjenester