Digital CACTUS, Digital CAre Contribution to the Transformation of User Services

In Europe, a significant number of adults suffer from long-term chronic conditions (LTCs), with many managing multiple conditions (MLTCs). Traditional healthcare systems are struggling due to their reactive nature, lack of coordination, limited accessibility, and disease-centric focus. The Digital-CACTUS project investigates the potential of blended care, which combines traditional and digital healthcare methods like video consultations, remote monitoring, and automated interventions. This approach aims to make healthcare more proactive, personalized, and accessible. The project has three main goals: 1. Understanding how digital tools impact the Patient-Clinician Relationships: Through studies and surveys, it explores how digital tools impact the patient journey, and the interactions between patients and clinicians, focusing on empathy, support, and personal attention. 2. Developing a Patient-Reported identification of care-points for digital support: This tool will identify where digital solutions could improve the patient journey by pinpointing system failures and suggesting appropriate combinations of digital interventions and digital care. 3. Evaluating the Impact of Blended Care Tools: Mapping the use of digital tools across Europe to assess which digital solutions should be included in optimal blended care models, for which patients, and in which situations? Digital-CACTUS combines expertise in MLTCs, digital medicine, and patient-centered care, aiming to provide health authorities with evidence-based recommendations. This ensures that digital healthcare preserves core human values and enhances system sustainability.

In European countries 25% have multiple long-term chronic conditions (MLTCs). Persons with MLTC represent 2/3ds or more of health care spending, because care systems are designed to handle single disease patients. Innovation of care, in terms of blended care models that augment traditional face-to-face care with technology is key to sustainability and continued quality of care. Blended care tools form a continuum from video consultation, asynchronous message exchanges, to remote patient monitoring and automated just-in-time interventions. Blended care models can support person-centered, proactive care, reduce the need for face-to-face visits and tailor care to the patients’ lives. However, poor implementation of blended care may disrupt workflows, cause digital exclusion or alter patient-clinician relationships. Our multidisciplinary research program aims at uncovering the potential gains and side effects of blended care at both patient and health system levels with a comprehensive research program with three work packages (WP). WP1. How will the digital transformation change patient–clinician relationships? The answer comes from an international survey eliciting patient and clinicians experiences. WP2. Which care-challenges could have been better supported by digital tools? Patients will recreate their care journey and indicate 1) “failures in care” and 2) whether blended care tools could have avoided or alleviated these failures. WP3. Mapping the potential impact of blended care in Europe through a large international survey of patients using the tool from WP2. We are five renowned teams in MTLCs, digital medicine and patient centered care, as well as a private partner which will translate research results into actionable tools. Our project provide decision makers with evidence on how technological tools should be implemented to optimize the delivery of health and care services while preserving the humanistic values of patient-clinician relationships.