RICHARD

Regional ICT based Clusters for Healthcare Applications and R&D Integration

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'Chronic diseases represent for healthcare systems the heaviest cost burden. Aside from the social costs in terms of suffering, they account for 70% on European average of public healthcare systems in the EU. A plethora of ICT based applications have been developed in the last years, allowing to tackle at least partially problems related to specific pathologies. However, even advanced experiences have had limited impact, mostly focusing on pilot applications entailing little or no change on the whole healthcare system. The RICHARD project arises from the need to make healthcare systems more efficient while managing effectively their costs. ICT can be a major change agent in this process, but only if systemic aspects are duly taken into account, such as the interrelation of ICT with organisational and non-technological components of healthcare systems. To do so, a significant shift is necessary to evolve from an application based model, to a comprehensive and sustainable chronic care model, likely to be adapted to the broadest possible range of chronic conditions. The RICHARD project will therefore focus its analysis on the pathologies-specific ICT applications being implemented in leading European regions and elaborate a Joint Action Plan oriented to the integration of those technologies for the deployment of sustainable chronic care models for European regions. This will require a strong coordination of research resources and innovation stakeholders (clearly identified in the first phase of the project) to design new research paths and innovation models. The Joint Action Plan will also be inspired by a medium-long term vision that looks at e-health services into a perspective of economic growth for the regions along the principles of open competition for better and pan-European healthcare services. In this respect the project plans to build upon strategic initiatives already undertaken within each participating region.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Four European Regional Clusters are developing models for the care of chronic conditions, with a focus on diabetes, cognitive diseases and stroke derived impairments.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Since now, tele-health applications for the care of chronic conditions had a limited success, and often they did not get over their experimentation phase. More than for technical reasons, this is due to the level of readiness of the Health Systems to support a organizational, cultural, regulatory, infrastructural changes.

The 'Regional ICT-based clusters for healthcare applications and R&D integration' (Richard) project intends to facilitate the definition and the implementation of novel models, using ICT, for managing chronic conditions in four regions (Tuscany in Italy, Lodz in Poland, Vasterbotten in Sweden and Yorkshire in the United Kingdom), leveraging on the direct cooperation of Health authorities with the Academic and Enterprise actors (the triple helix concept) on a shared Joint Action Plan.

The team also recruited a set of external experts who formed an Advisory Committee assessing the implementation of these Joint Actions.

First, the project identified major barriers to the implementation of tele-health services across Europe based on scientific literature. The next step was to develop a telehealth implementation toolkit (the Ready Steady Go toolkit, http://clahrc-sy.nihr.ac.uk/resources-project-reports.html) to support stakeholders in defining, implementing and delivering effective tele-Health services. The toolkit was developed in collaboration with the National Institute for Health Research Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care for South Yorkshire (NIHR CLAHRC SY).

A third step was to exchange detailed information about pilots and models already in place in the four regions and to cooperate to facilitate the cross adoption of them (mentoring activities).

Finally, the project team published the acquired information in 4 languages (see http://www.richardproject.eu) and participated in 20 conferences presenting their strategy. They have also published a brochure, generated four press releases and participated in four web/radio programmes.

The Richard programme could be viewed as a reference initiative to improve Chronic Care management in Europe using ICT. Implementation of the project will help to combine resources, consolidate regional clusters on tele-health and disseminate the findings among further regions in Europe.