Competitive health services in sparsely populated areas - eHealth applications across

the urban-rural dimension

NPP Scottish partner meeting 16/17 March 2009

Objective

• to enhance the provision and accessibility of health services in the sparsely populated areas of Europe by developing and implementing innovative eHealth solutions and promoting transfer of the best eHealth practices across the NPP area.

Who are the partners in Scotland?

NHS Highland

Centre for Rural Health, University of Aberdeen - Inverness

With help from the Scottish Centre for Telehealth - Aberdeen

Who are the partners in Scandinavia?TROMSØNorwegian Centre for Telemedicine + University Hospital of North Norway

UMEÅUniversity + Västerbotten County Council

OULUNorthern Ostrobothnia Hospital District + Oulu University Hospital

How are we similar?

• Ageing population

How are we similar?

• Remote communities

How are we similar?

• Winter weather

How are we different?

• The NHS (National Health Service) is structured differently from health services in Scandinavia

• More local control and funding – less ‘national’

• Better IT infrastructure in the far northern areas of Finland, Sweden and Norway – broadband, mobile phone networks

4 countries - similar, yet different

? ? ? ? ?

How can we identify eHealth innovations that have the potential to be transferred between countries?

What does one country do well that another could learn from and adopt in practice?

?

How will this work?

During 2008 each country has:

• researched the known eHealth developments in its region• added checklists summarising each eHealth service to an online

project database (87 services) • carried out semi-structured interviews with selected service

providers• used this shared information as a basis to shortlist eHealth

applications which may be suitable for transfer – import and export

Moving on into 2009…

• Chosen potential pilot sites for cross-border implementation of eHealth services. Meeting in Inverness brought together healthcare professionals, eHealth specialists, product designers and academics from four countries

• Assessing how likely it is that the ‘transplant’ will take root over the long term, using the Normalisation Process Model – with advice from our Irish partners in Galway

What do we end up with?

eHealth innovation pilot site

x 4

The Matchmaking

In Finland, 4 potential imports were identified (2 from Sweden; 1 from Norway; 1 from Scotland).

In Scotland, 2 potential imports were identified (1 from Sweden; 1 from Norway).

In Sweden, 1 potential import was identified (from Finland).

In Norway, 2 potential imports were identified (1

from Sweden; 1 from Scotland) .

What is being matched?

Remote ECG monitoring

Speech therapy by Video conference

Teledialysis

Home monitoring for palliative care

The Bag

Eye Mo

How will it work?

• March 2009 – December 2010

• Pilot projects to be set up, encouraged, monitored and evaluated

• Moving beyond the pilot stage - is that the end?

? ? ? ? ?

What should we end up with?

• 4 transplanted, functioning, sustainable eHealth applications, or should we go for more??

• Knowledge base to support future transplants