On 15th and 16th June, Palacio Miramar in Donostia – San Sebastián hosted the latest European congress “Digital Health: Innovating to move forward” organised by Osakidetza and the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) Summer Courses. Healthcare and social care professionals, managers, researchers, technology firms, universities and patients discussed, learnt and generated knowledge and innovation useful for society. The congress honed in on key subjects such as innovation under the umbrella of the healthcare sphere and telemedicine. Other highlights included the value provided by innovation to users and how the system economic, social and environmental sustainability is being promoted. In this context, telemedicine was also considered as an instrument facilitating co-ordinated management of care processes, communication between professionals, integrated care, knowledge management, as well as patients’ participation and empowerment.
Kronikgune and Osakidetza had the opportunity to present two of the three European projects they are involved in: ACT@Scale and Scirocco.
In ACT@Scale Osakidetza’s participation in the project was presented, with two Good Practices in the form of corporative programmes: telemonitoring of patients with heart failure and integrated healthcare pathway for patients with multiple comorbidities. The purpose of the project is to implement, develop and consolidate Good Practices in integrated care and telemedicine, promoting their extension and transferring learning and knowledge acquired to other European regions. To date, Osakidetza professionals in the Basque Country have identified areas of improvement in both programmes and have defined targets and action accordingly. Several collaborative and multidisciplinary work teams have been formed, represented by actors from the different Osakidetza organisations, to develop and implement such action.
Regarding Scirocco, a guide for the contextual analysis of maturity requirements to implement Good Practices in Europe, developed by Kronikgune and Osakidetza within the project framework, was also presented. This work will contribute to test and validate a tool enabling multi-dimensional maturity assessment of regions to implement integrated care, called “Scirocco Tool”. Furthermore, “Scirocco Tool” aims to facilitate the scaling-up of Good Practices and transfer of knowledge among European members. A maturity analysis is currently in progress regarding integrated care in healthcare systems of the regions involved in the project.
