Periodic Reporting for period 1 - RAPIDE (REGULAR AND UNPLANNED CARE ADAPTIVE DASHBOARD FOR CROSS–BORDER EMERGENCIES)
Reporting period: 2024-01-01 to 2025-06-30
During cross-border health emergencies, such as pandemics, health and care services can quickly become overwhelmed with high numbers of people requiring care. Emergencies place stress on entire healthcare systems, with delays and backlogs leading to gaps in care and poorer healthcare outcomes for patients. To reduce the impact of health emergencies, healthcare systems must become more robust, resilient and flexible. Systems must allow for rapid and effective adaptations in the delivery of care, including hybrid care that combines in person and remote care.
RAPIDE is focused on how to maintain quality health and care services during a health emergency. To achieve this, RAPIDE is developing, feasibility testing and demonstrating a portfolio of powerful tools to build robustness and resilience in healthcare provision and enable access to quality care. The project is learning what care is needed during an emergency and when. Effective and acceptable tools to deliver necessary care in new ways are being explored so that RAPIDE can learn how to optimise care across hospitals, community settings and in the home, as well as hybrid care, while maintaining the quality of care. RAPIDE results will help healthcare managers to model and to optimise how resources are used, such as hospital beds and doctor’s time. This will enable more healthcare to be delivered from the same resources and will also inform investment decisions. Throughout the project, the social sciences and humanities play an important role in making sure that the solutions developed serve all types of patients and can be used successfully across different healthcare systems. At the end of the project, the tools will be demonstrated for key stakeholders using a mock epidemic. The developed tools and project results will be shared widely to benefit all of Europe.
RAPIDE is focused on how to maintain quality health and care services during a health emergency. To achieve this, RAPIDE is developing, feasibility testing and demonstrating a portfolio of powerful tools to build robustness and resilience in healthcare provision and enable access to quality care. The project is learning what care is needed during an emergency and when. Effective and acceptable tools to deliver necessary care in new ways are being explored so that RAPIDE can learn how to optimise care across hospitals, community settings and in the home, as well as hybrid care, while maintaining the quality of care. RAPIDE results will help healthcare managers to model and to optimise how resources are used, such as hospital beds and doctor’s time. This will enable more healthcare to be delivered from the same resources and will also inform investment decisions. Throughout the project, the social sciences and humanities play an important role in making sure that the solutions developed serve all types of patients and can be used successfully across different healthcare systems. At the end of the project, the tools will be demonstrated for key stakeholders using a mock epidemic. The developed tools and project results will be shared widely to benefit all of Europe.
To date, RAPIDE has focused on what can be learned from the recent COVID-19 pandemic. RAPIDE researchers have systematically gathered information from scientific publications that have looked at how the pandemic impacted on regular care, how different groups were affected and how different healthcare systems coped with the additional care demands, looking at the experience in 23 European countries. Interviews were also conducted with stakeholders, such as healthcare providers, policymakers, public health professionals, and patient advocates across seven countries, to learn about their lived experience of the COVID-19 pandemic. There were many important learnings from this work, that will help the RAPIDE team as they develop a portfolio of tools to support healthcare systems in future emergencies. For example, hybrid care and digital tools for healthcare helped to maintain care, but these approaches did not work equally well for all patients or in all healthcare systems. Vulnerable groups, such as older adults, rural populations, and those with low digital literacy, found using these new approaches to care more challenging. Countries with existing digital health systems adapted better than those with less developed infrastructure. Learnings from this work will feed into the development of RAPIDE’s portfolio of tools.
RAPIDE has also started to develop computer models that can help healthcare systems decide how to best use available resources during a health emergency in a way that minimises the impact on regular care. Real-time and short-term prediction models of patient flows into hospitals and bed occupancy can help manage wait lists and distribution of patients within the system between hospitals or into other care settings. A long-term forecasting model that looks at the changing emergency over time and care backlog allows for more tactical and strategic planning over weeks and months. These models will continue to be refined over the project and will ultimately be shared for future use by healthcare systems.
RAPIDE has performed case studies In four countries (The Netherlands, Italy, Slovenia and Malta), in which health systems were mapped from the perspective of policy decisions on hybrid care, and the responsibilities of the main stakeholders for transforming healthcare during emergencies were identified. In depth interviews and focus groups were held to understand perceptions, experiences and needs of patients with diabetes and heart failure regarding hybrid care delivery, as well as of healthcare professionals and informal care givers involved in the care for these patients. These findings are being used in co-creation sessions in the four countries to design the RAPIDE hybrid care models that will be feasibility tested in the next steps of the project,
Training, empowerment and knowledge transfer also have an important impact on healthcare during an emergency. Healthcare managers need to know how to maximise resource value, healthcare professionals need to know how to best deliver hybrid care and the public needs to be empowered to access and engage with hybrid care. To meet these needs, RAPIDE researchers have conducted focus groups and interviews to learn what training is needed and how it can best be delivered to different target groups. This work will continue with training delivery and assessment, ultimately delivering a Communications and Training Toolbox.
RAPIDE has also started to develop computer models that can help healthcare systems decide how to best use available resources during a health emergency in a way that minimises the impact on regular care. Real-time and short-term prediction models of patient flows into hospitals and bed occupancy can help manage wait lists and distribution of patients within the system between hospitals or into other care settings. A long-term forecasting model that looks at the changing emergency over time and care backlog allows for more tactical and strategic planning over weeks and months. These models will continue to be refined over the project and will ultimately be shared for future use by healthcare systems.
RAPIDE has performed case studies In four countries (The Netherlands, Italy, Slovenia and Malta), in which health systems were mapped from the perspective of policy decisions on hybrid care, and the responsibilities of the main stakeholders for transforming healthcare during emergencies were identified. In depth interviews and focus groups were held to understand perceptions, experiences and needs of patients with diabetes and heart failure regarding hybrid care delivery, as well as of healthcare professionals and informal care givers involved in the care for these patients. These findings are being used in co-creation sessions in the four countries to design the RAPIDE hybrid care models that will be feasibility tested in the next steps of the project,
Training, empowerment and knowledge transfer also have an important impact on healthcare during an emergency. Healthcare managers need to know how to maximise resource value, healthcare professionals need to know how to best deliver hybrid care and the public needs to be empowered to access and engage with hybrid care. To meet these needs, RAPIDE researchers have conducted focus groups and interviews to learn what training is needed and how it can best be delivered to different target groups. This work will continue with training delivery and assessment, ultimately delivering a Communications and Training Toolbox.
The first phase of the project has focused on gathering information and evidence to inform the development of the RAPIDE portfolio of tools, which will be the main result of the project. The knowledge gained is useful in and of itself, and publications in scientific journals are in preparation to share findings with the wider research and policy communities. In future phases of the project, the hybrid care model along with supportive digital tools, computer models and training materials will be finalised, feasibility tested in Italy, Malta, the Netherlands and Slovenia, and demonstrated for key stakeholders using a mock epidemic. The RAPIDE portfolio of tools will also be made available to healthcare systems and other end users for applications across Europe. These activities will ensure dissemination and exploitation of RAPIDE results to achieve the expected impacts. Overall, RAPIDE will enable healthcare systems to become more effective, efficient and resilient during health emergencies, ensuring that regular care can be delivered through innovative approaches that maintain quality and accessibility of care. RAPIDE outputs will also support citizens in accessing appropriate care during an emergency and enable a holistic approach to care through better policy.