Patient@home Ecosystem

Abstract

Patient@home was the largest Danish project within health and welfare technology. The aim was to support the health and care sector with innovative technologies to meet the increasing demands of an aging and more chronically ill population. The underlying hypothesis was that the increased use of technology could help minimize hospital admissions in both number and duration. New technologies enable carefully selected groups of patients to stay longer in their own homes to the benefit of both patients (and their relatives) and the health and care sectors. A unique ecosystem for the development, assessment, and testing of health and welfare technology was developed, refined and matured from 2012 to 2018. The ecosystem covered the entire value chain from research to implementation; it had a broad national cov-erage and an international outreach with more than 100 partners (including 66 private companies). The ecosystem provided a set of services that supported knowledge and evidence based development and assessment. Numerous contributing partners were aligned to each focus on what they do best. A “best practice” method for successful product and service development was established based on examination of successful projects in the portfolio. The ecosystem deployed specialized methods for technology assessment and smart innovation management.