The Digital Health Centre – A Partnership Project

Advancing the municipal healthcare service

The Digital Health Centre is a significant advancement in how local municipal healthcare centers are able to deliver their services, such as services designed for citizens suffering from chronic diseases.

Digital solutions are essential

The vision for the Digital Health Centre, concerns the development and integration of digital solutions as part of the services offered by the local healthcare centers. In order to realize this vision, a string of development projects, focusing on different target groups, will be carried out as well as a focus on the systematic application of digital solutions, which will lead to:

• Increased flexibility and accessibility of the various services
• The development of differentiated efforts with the aim of increasing the motivation for participation and in order to ensure maintenance of lifestyle changes. Resource efficiency, partly because healthcare specialists will not be bound by municipal restrictions when managing citizens, and partly through initiatives focusing on self-help so that some citizens, to a certain degree, can treat themselves, and those who need help the most is offered a greater, extended service
• The Digital Healthcare Centre will be instrumental in solving some of the issues the municipalities experience when working with health promotion and preventive measures. The issues may be caused because of a lack of flexibility and accessibility to the services, stemming from geographical distances between the citizens and the local municipal healthcare centers. Furthermore, limited opening hours and inflexible preplanned courses can mean an unwarranted amount of waiting time for the citizens who are already motivated to get started.

Digital Patient Education

The project has been given 3 million DKK by the Ministry of Health’s development fund, “A healthier life for all” (Sundere liv for alle). As a subproject, the partners in the Digital Health Centre want to develop a service focused on the digital education of patients, for citizens over the age of 18.

The project’s goals are:

• To develop, test and spread digital services concerning patient education to citizens suffering from type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease
• To experiment with various digital communication platforms, when informing and communicating about healthcare centered content. This is especially relevant when working with preventive services at municipal healthcare centers.

Having a good life, despite of a chronic disease

The Digital Patient Education will afford patients a greater opportunity to have and withhold a good life, despite of their chronic disease, as well as live a life with mental surplus.

Therefore, the concept of the Digital Patient Education has focused on both healthcare related topics, as well as topics related to how capable patients are at managing their lives, when dealing with a chronic disease.

Following a survey among citizens suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), heart disease and type 2 diabetes, they found that patients find it difficult to stay motivated during a treatment process. This information has been a key component in the development of what the project should be able to accomplish.

The use of already established technologies, e.g. websites, webinars, e-learning and so forth will form the basis of the Digital Patient Education. Furthermore, the partnership wants to explore the possibilities of using closed, private group forums on social media, such as Facebook, and whether it should be featured as part of the Digital Patient Education. While the project is based on existing technologies, the partnership will continually evaluate if any new solutions have the ability to improve the service, or whether parts of the service do not meet the required standards.

The Health Innovation Centre of Southern Denmark is charged with managing the project.