Competitive health services in sparsely
populated areas - eHealth applications across
the urban-rural dimension
The long version…….
?????
or….
The short version…
eHealth solutions
across the Northern
Periphery
What is the Northern Periphery?
What do we hope to end up with?
• At least 4 transplanted, functioning, sustainable eHealth
applications
•
A knowledge base to support future transplants
Who are the partners in Scotland?
Centre for Rural
Health,
University of
Aberdeen -
NHS
Highland
Inverness
With help from the Scottish
Centre for Telehealth Aberdeen
Who are the partners in Scandinavia?
TROMSØ
Norwegian Centre
for Telemedicine
+ University
Hospital of North
Norway
OULU
Northern
Ostrobothnia
Hospital District
+ Oulu
University
Hospital
UMEÅ
University +
Västerbotten
County Council
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
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…
•
Each country is now….
•
Choosing potential pilot sites for cross-border implementation of
eHealth services
•
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 next?
• So now we are meeting here in Inverness to explore
potential matches
• Bringing together healthcare professionals, eHealth
specialists, product designers and academics from four
countries
?
What do we end up with?
eHealth innovation
pilot site
x4
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
•
Knowledge base to support future transplants