The partners collaborated to further detail the requirements for the project. Because of COVID-19, new, safe ways of working were introduced using online tools. In monthly online consortium meetings the status and any occurring issues were discussed. There were scheduled and ‘ad-hoc’ meetings within and between WPs and with the Advisory Board to make progress. Finally, 4 face-to-face meetings were organised.
Regarding the development of new integrated care built on the value-based methodology, we achieved:
1) Definition of the value-based framework including ICT requirements through literature research, co-design with end-users and collaboration among all partners; Identification of clerical and clinical data needed in the project
2) Recruitment of different target groups through various engagement strategies and methodologies suitable for each pilot
3) Co-design activities in pilots to collect information about the target group, and the care pathways; discussion of the VC concept with end-users and collection of user experiences.
Together with all partners and local stakeholders, using a co-design approach, a digital solution with three components was developed: 1) Virtual Coach, 2) Mobile Application and 3) Web Dashboard. Algorithms for the virtual coach dialogues were defined and developed within each pilot separately. The cloud infrastructure for hosting the VC solution was set up, and the digital solution was adapted for each pilot.
For the pilot implementation, preparatory work, including involving local stakeholders, was done. Pilots had guidelines to adapt the general framework to the local context. Recruitment took place and the VC approach was deployed in the intervention group in each pilot. Progress differed between pilots for several reasons, but all pilots finished recruitment, implemented the intervention, and collected the two follow-up questionnaires.
The earlier designed evaluation framework was used to evaluate the effectiveness and implementation of VC. Questionnaires for all target groups were developed for the 3 measurement time points. Debriefing interviews were done for collecting qualitative data; the results of these interviews were used to encourage continuous learning. Several intermediate statistical analyses were performed, and a final analysis was done to summarise the results.
A dissemination and communication strategy was created mainly aiming at the general public, policy makers and service managers. There is a website where information about the project, the pilots, blog items and news articles were posted. A Twitter account, LinkedIn profile and podcast were developed and regularly being updated.
Moreover, each partner carried out different activities, including participation in conferences/webinars/workshops, creating promotional materials for local distribution and managing local social media pages.
For the exploitation and innovation, active collaboration between the WPs 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 was done. A business exploitation plan was developed. 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 throughout the project. In RP3, the VC Ethics Committee gathered, final versions of the ethical management plan, ethical guidelines and templates and data management plan have been written.
