Periodic Reporting for period 2 - VALUECARE (VALUE-BASED METHODOLOGY FOR INTEGRATED CARE SUPPORTED BY ICT)
Reporting period: 2021-06-01 to 2022-11-30
Healthy ageing along with independent living have become key challenges for Europe as there is a growth in the number of older persons. Several organisations have stressed the importance of independence, participation and autonomy of older people to remain healthy and consequently to ensure quality of life. ValueCare (VC) will 1) deliver efficient outcome-based integrated (health and social) care to older people facing cognitive impairment, frailty and multiple chronic health conditions to improve their quality of life (and of their families), 2) contribute to the sustainability of the health and social care systems in Europe and 3) provide a secure, scalable and robust digital solution for integrated care.
It will take into account job satisfaction and wellbeing of health and social service providers moving from Triple to Quadruple Aim. The project’s digital solution is being tested and evaluated in 7 pilots in Europe following a sound methodology developed by the partners together with end-users. VC proposes greater efficiency in the use of resources and coordination of care in a setting that ensures trust of users and policy makers about data access, protection and sharing and standardisation replicable in EU. The consortium (17 partners from 8 countries) has been built to guarantee a full coverage of scientific, technological, clinical and social competencies and to gather the viewpoint of different actors necessary to develop, test and evaluate concepts, paradigms, protocols and interventions related to VC. The consortium includes stakeholders from digital health and social care in order to maximize its chances of success.
It will take into account job satisfaction and wellbeing of health and social service providers moving from Triple to Quadruple Aim. The project’s digital solution is being tested and evaluated in 7 pilots in Europe following a sound methodology developed by the partners together with end-users. VC proposes greater efficiency in the use of resources and coordination of care in a setting that ensures trust of users and policy makers about data access, protection and sharing and standardisation replicable in EU. The consortium (17 partners from 8 countries) has been built to guarantee a full coverage of scientific, technological, clinical and social competencies and to gather the viewpoint of different actors necessary to develop, test and evaluate concepts, paradigms, protocols and interventions related to VC. The consortium includes stakeholders from digital health and social care in order to maximize its chances of success.
The partners worked together to further detail the requirements for the project. Because of COVID-19, the way of working had to be adapted. New, safe ways of working were introduced using online tools. In monthly online consortium meetings the status and any occurring issues were discussed. Additionally, there were scheduled and ‘ad-hoc’ meetings within and between work packages to make progress. An External Advisory Board was established. Dedicated meetings were introduced to promote collaboration within the consortium; e.g. monthly WP leaders meeting and bi-weekly WP1-2-3-4 meeting. Additionally, a few face-to-face meetings were organised.
Regarding the development of new integrated care built on the value-based methodology, the following has been achieved: 1) a literature research to draft the value-based framework, 2) information is collected, using a co-design approach, from all pilot sites to further define the value-based framework 3) partners have collaborated in identifying all clerical and clinical data in the pilot sites that is needed for defining the VC concept regarding ‘value-based working’ and the ICT requirements 4) the engagement strategies and methodology to involve and recruit the target groups have been defined and 5) co-design activities have been conducted in the pilot sites to collect information about the target group, the care pathways, to discuss the VC concept with end-users and to gather user experiences. The value-based framework is continuously being further defined and developed.
The definition of architecture and infrastructure of the digital solution have been completed. Together with all partners and local stakeholders, using a co-design approach, it was planned that there will be 3 components: 1) Virtual Coach, 2) Mobile Application and 3) Web Dashboard. The definition and development of algorithms for the VC implementation is finished, a meeting with each pilot site took place to together define the virtual coach dialogues and the algorithms needed. The cloud infrastructure for hosting the VC solution is ready. The VC digital solution has now been fully developed for each of the seven pilots.
As for pilot implementation, preparatory work, including involving local stakeholders, has been conducted by all pilot sites to be ready for the intervention. Guidelines have been prepared for the pilot sites facilitating the adaptation of the general framework towards the local context. The progress regarding the adaptation in the pilot sites vary, as the target groups and the impact of the pandemic differ. All seven pilots have started the recruitment and implementation. Despite the impact by the COVID-19 pandemic, the recruitment for some pilot sites has already been completed.
An evaluation framework was designed to evaluate the effectiveness and implementation of VC. The effectiveness and implementation outcome measures were defined and individual pilot site meetings took place to discuss pilot specific questions and outcome measures for the evaluation. Finally, the baseline questionnaire for older persons, informal caregivers, health and social practitioners and organisational/ICT experts were developed. An intermediate analysis was performed with data collected until 31 August 2022. Debriefing interviews were introduced for collecting qualitative data and to encourage continuous learning.
A dissemination and communication strategy was created mainly aiming at general society, policy makers, service managers and non-recruited service users. A general website was created where information about the project, the pilots, blog items and news articles have been posted. Guidelines were created regarding the visual representation of the project. A Twitter account, LinkedIn profile and podcast were developed. Finally, animations were created to give a good idea about how the pilot sites work. Moreover, each partner has carried out different activities, including participation in conferences/webinars/workshops, creating promotional materials for local distribution and establishing local social media pages.
For the exploitation and innovation, active collaboration between the work packages took place specifically regarding co-design activities, user requirements and technical specifications of the digital solution, stakeholder mapping and evaluation framework. Identification of relevant stakeholders is in progress. The backbone of the business exploitation plan has been fully developed, and the consortium and external stakeholders were involved in gathering the information needed to develop the business plan.
The high importance of ethics and data protection was recognised through the establishment of 1) the VC Ethics Committee and the development of 2) Ethical Management plan 3) Ethical Guidelines and Templates and 4) Data Management Plan. In RP2, the VC Ethics Committee gathered, a new version of the ethical management plan, ethical guidelines and templates and data management plan have been written.
Regarding the development of new integrated care built on the value-based methodology, the following has been achieved: 1) a literature research to draft the value-based framework, 2) information is collected, using a co-design approach, from all pilot sites to further define the value-based framework 3) partners have collaborated in identifying all clerical and clinical data in the pilot sites that is needed for defining the VC concept regarding ‘value-based working’ and the ICT requirements 4) the engagement strategies and methodology to involve and recruit the target groups have been defined and 5) co-design activities have been conducted in the pilot sites to collect information about the target group, the care pathways, to discuss the VC concept with end-users and to gather user experiences. The value-based framework is continuously being further defined and developed.
The definition of architecture and infrastructure of the digital solution have been completed. Together with all partners and local stakeholders, using a co-design approach, it was planned that there will be 3 components: 1) Virtual Coach, 2) Mobile Application and 3) Web Dashboard. The definition and development of algorithms for the VC implementation is finished, a meeting with each pilot site took place to together define the virtual coach dialogues and the algorithms needed. The cloud infrastructure for hosting the VC solution is ready. The VC digital solution has now been fully developed for each of the seven pilots.
As for pilot implementation, preparatory work, including involving local stakeholders, has been conducted by all pilot sites to be ready for the intervention. Guidelines have been prepared for the pilot sites facilitating the adaptation of the general framework towards the local context. The progress regarding the adaptation in the pilot sites vary, as the target groups and the impact of the pandemic differ. All seven pilots have started the recruitment and implementation. Despite the impact by the COVID-19 pandemic, the recruitment for some pilot sites has already been completed.
An evaluation framework was designed to evaluate the effectiveness and implementation of VC. The effectiveness and implementation outcome measures were defined and individual pilot site meetings took place to discuss pilot specific questions and outcome measures for the evaluation. Finally, the baseline questionnaire for older persons, informal caregivers, health and social practitioners and organisational/ICT experts were developed. An intermediate analysis was performed with data collected until 31 August 2022. Debriefing interviews were introduced for collecting qualitative data and to encourage continuous learning.
A dissemination and communication strategy was created mainly aiming at general society, policy makers, service managers and non-recruited service users. A general website was created where information about the project, the pilots, blog items and news articles have been posted. Guidelines were created regarding the visual representation of the project. A Twitter account, LinkedIn profile and podcast were developed. Finally, animations were created to give a good idea about how the pilot sites work. Moreover, each partner has carried out different activities, including participation in conferences/webinars/workshops, creating promotional materials for local distribution and establishing local social media pages.
For the exploitation and innovation, active collaboration between the work packages took place specifically regarding co-design activities, user requirements and technical specifications of the digital solution, stakeholder mapping and evaluation framework. Identification of relevant stakeholders is in progress. The backbone of the business exploitation plan has been fully developed, and the consortium and external stakeholders were involved in gathering the information needed to develop the business plan.
The high importance of ethics and data protection was recognised through the establishment of 1) the VC Ethics Committee and the development of 2) Ethical Management plan 3) Ethical Guidelines and Templates and 4) Data Management Plan. In RP2, the VC Ethics Committee gathered, a new version of the ethical management plan, ethical guidelines and templates and data management plan have been written.
VC exceeds in 1) the implementation of ‘value-based’ working in integrated health and social care, to put the preferences of the patients/clients central in the care process 2) by applying co-design with the involvement of patients, health and social professionals, ICT technicians, managers and policy makers to ensure effective implementation and acceptance 3) developing and implementing ICT solutions to support patients, family members, informal caregivers and professionals 4) involvement of specialists on business development from the start of the project 5) an open and transparent approach with an active dissemination strategy. The consortium aims to increase quality of care at lower costs resulting in a positive socio-economic impact in participating countries and Europe as a whole.