THE MEDICAL HOME - Sustainable services and technology for home medication

For public health services, resource constraints make effective organisation a precondition for high quality service delivery. Frail elders living at home have complex care needs, and ensuring safe medication is a challenge. While inappropriate medicine u se may lead to complications and death and more hospital admissions, home nursing is resource intensive. New technology may support the development of safe, more resource-effective routines around home medication. Its implementation and use may however re quire new competence and changes in practice at an individual and a systems level. However, little research has addressed the topic. A better understanding of the related challenges and opportunities is needed. To contribute to that, the project combines perspectives and methods from design and innovation, nursing science, sociology and philosophy, taking the case of home medication in Bjugn municipality as the starting point. WP1 combines a focus on domestic medication practices with a systems perspectiv e on healthcare services. Emphasising the interplay between end-users and other stakeholders and the range, scope and capabilities of relevant technologies, it explores the potential role of design in supporting sustainable medication practices. WP2 focus es on the professional development of nurses and social educators, and their cooperation with medical doctors and pharmacists in the provision of medication at home. While education currently places little emphasis on technology, the introduction and impl ementation of new technology may require new knowledge and competence-building among professionals. WP3 focuses on the ethical challenges associated with technology use in home medication: the consequences of technology introduction for the norms and valu es underlying healthcare practice and how they can be anticipated. WP4 explores the value of interdisciplinary cooperation between engineers and healthcare students in health and welfare product development.