Sofie Wass

Big Data, Smart Homes and Ambient Assisted Living

OBJECTIVES To discuss how current research in the area of smart homes and ambient assisted living will be influenced by the use of big data. METHODS A scoping review of literature published in scientific journals and conference proceedings was performed, focusing on smart homes, ambient assisted living and big data over the years 2011-2014. RESULTS The health and social care market has lagged behind other markets when it comes to the introduction of innovative IT solutions and the market faces a number of challenges as the use of big data will increase. First, there is a need for a sustainable and trustful information chain where the needed information can be transferred from all producers to all consumers in a structured way. Second, there is a need for big data strategies and policies to manage the new situation where information is handled and transferred independently of the place of the expertise. Finally, there is a possibility to develop new and innovative business models for a market that supports cloud computing, social media, crowdsourcing etc. CONCLUSIONS The interdisciplinary area of big data, smart homes and ambient assisted living is no longer only of interest for IT developers, it is also of interest for decision makers as customers make more informed choices among todays services. In the future it will be of importance to make information usable for managers and improve decision making, tailor smart home services based on big data, develop new business models, increase competition and identify policies to ensure privacy, security and liability.

Healthcare in the age of open innovation - A literature review.

Background: In spite of an increased interest in open innovation and strategies that call for an increased collaboration between different healthcare actors, there is a lack of open innovation research in public contexts. Objective: This article presents the results of a review regarding the healthcare sector’s engagement in open innovation as well as constraining factors and positive outcomes of open innovation in healthcare. Method: The literature search focused on papers published in English between 2003 and 2014. Based on specified inclusion criteria, 18 articles were included. Results: Results reveal that most studies focus on inbound open innovation where external knowledge is integrated with the internal knowledge base at an initial phase of the innovation process. Innovation primarily results in products and services through innovation networks. We also identified constraining factors for open innovation in healthcare, including the complex organizations of healthcare, the need to establish routines for capturing knowledge from patients and clinicians, regulations and healthcare data laws as well as the positive outcome patient empowerment. Conclusion: The healthcare sector’s engagement in open innovation is limited, and it is necessary to perform further research with a focus on how open innovation can be managed in healthcare.

Challenges of stimulating a market for social innovation - provision of a national health account.

Innovation in healthcare can be associated with social innovation and the mission to contribute to a shared value that benefits not only individuals or organizations but the society as a whole. In this paper, we present the prerequisites of stimulating a market for social innovations by studying the introduction of a national health account. The results show that there is a need to clarify if a national health account should be viewed as a public good or not, to clarify the financial responsibilities of different actors, to establish clear guidelines and to develop regulations concerning price, quality and certification of actors. The ambition to stimulate the market through a national health account is a promising start. However, the challenges have to be confronted in order for public and private actors to collaborate and build a market for social innovations such as a national health account.

The Role of PAEHRs in Patient Involvement

With increased patient access to data, healthcare services are experiencing change where patients are moving away from being mere passive actors towards becoming more active and involved participants. In this paper, we explore the role of patient accessible electronic health records (PAEHRs) with respect to this increase in patient involvement. The study was performed as a case study and included nine interviews with patients and a survey that was responded to by 56 patients. Our results show that PAEHRs have a role in the enhancement of patient involvement because PAEHRs (i) foster a more balanced relationship between patients and healthcare professionals and (ii) increase access to information.

Same, same but different: Perceptions of patients’ online access to electronic health records among healthcare professionals:

In this study, we explore how healthcare professionals in primary care and outpatient clinics perceive the outcomes of giving patients online access to their electronic health records. The study was carried out as a case study and included a workshop, six interviews and a survey that was answered by 146 healthcare professionals. The results indicate that professionals working in primary care perceive that an increase in information-sharing with patients can increase adherence, clarify important information to the patient and allow the patient to quality-control documented information. Professionals at outpatient clinics seem less convinced about the benefits of patient accessible electronic health records and have concerns about how patients manage the information that they are given access to. However, the patient accessible electronic health record has not led to a change in documentation procedures among the majority of the professionals. While the findings can be connected to the context of outpatient clinics and primary care units, other contextual factors might influence the results and more in-depth studies are therefore needed to clarify the concerns.

Exploring patients’ perceptions of accessing electronic health records: Innovation in healthcare:

The more widespread implementation of electronic health records has led to new ways of providing access to healthcare information, allowing patients to view their medical notes, test results, medicines and so on. In this article, we explore how patients perceive the possibility to access their electronic health record online and whether this influences patient involvement. The study includes interviews with nine patients and a survey answered by 56 patients. Our results show that patients perceive healthcare information to be more accessible and that electronic health record accessibility improves recall, understanding and patient involvement. However, to achieve the goal of involving patients as active decision-makers in their own treatment, electronic health records need to be fully available and test results, referrals and information on drug interactions need to be offered. As patient access to electronic health records spreads, it is important to gain a deeper understanding of how documentation practices can be changed to serve healthcare professionals and patients.

Exploring the effects of eHealth service innovation

To analyse the impact of implementation and use of eHealth services is fraught with difficulty, and there is often a gap between expected and identified outcomes. In this paper, we identify innovation effects of an eHealth service by applying a framework that focusses on the expected coherent impacts of implementing an IT innovation and contributes to the body of knowledge on tracking innovation effects of services in eHealth. A case study examines four different care units in a government-funded health-care setting. The results show that the effects in the first two contexts of the framework, the micro level and intra-/interorganisational level, could be clearly identified with regard to the physicians and the organisation. However, effects were lacking in the virtual context when looking beyond the involvement of the stakeholders in the eHealth service. The connections between effects for societal groups and larger societal systems simply could not be made in a satisfactory manner.