Scaling up health innovations for people living with dementia; A social innovation approach

Eveline Wouters & Ellen VerhaeghGent, September 23rd 2015

• Increase of people with dementia worldwide

• Aging in place is stimulated

• Increase in availability of assistive health innovations

• Large scale diffusion of assistive health innovations is still difficult

FACTS

Solving the gap between innovations and its use

Definition

“New ideas (products, services and models) that simultaneously meet social needs and create new social relationships or collaborations” Grisolia 2015

HOW?Social

Innovation

Open network

• Shared values• Shared knowledge• Shared savings

• Collaboration and co-creation between stakeholders is essential

• Different expectations and assumed responsibilities however dominate

Ecosystems are good examples of smooth collaboration

Barriers and facilitators of diffusion of health innovationsVerhaegh, Snaphaan, Wouters, et al. 2015

Ecosystem Dementia Care ‘Brabantse Proeftuin Dementie’

• People living with dementia (person with dementia and/or caregivers)

• Care professionals • Researchers & students• Developers & companies• Health care policy advisors

CHALLENGE: understand each other(’s language)

Ecosystem Dementia Care‘Brabantse Proeftuin Dementie’

Results

• > 150 participators/habitants are collaborating in the EDC

• 15 Communities of Practice (open, pragmatic and learning networks)

• EDC stimulate, facilitate and investigate these CoP

Ecosystem Dementia Care‘Brabantse Proeftuin Dementie’

Conclusions

• shared values, shared knowledge and shared savings

• stakeholder groups need a linking pin between each other

• this linking pin has to speak several stakeholder languages

Thanks to

and many others…

Example CoP‘Old learned, young done’

• Nursing students, entrepreneurs, clients, teachers, researchers

• Human link technology – clients

• Advising role of young healthcare professionals – both human solutions and technical solutions

• Bottom-up approach

Workshop today:Experiencing a CoP approach

An innovation suitable fordementiaYou are going to know the product better now:

• Take a sheet and a pencil and visualise the product for yourself on the paper in 15 minutes. Also, take a look through the glasses.

• You will see that in order to do that, you have to have a very precise look at the product

Take another perspective

With the current knowledge and a opinion about the innovation:

• Pick a coloured card

• The colours means different roles. Each role (i.e. stake) means a different perspective regarding to the product

Take another perspective

Blue: you are an entrepreneur who wants to sell this innovation to people with dementia in a home-situation. Your product will give them rest and relaxation.

Green: You are a healthcare professional who wants to advise your clients about what will support them in their situation.

Red: You are someone who has dementia in a relatively early phase, and/or husband/wife of someone who suffers from dementia.

Yellow: You are an employee of a health insurance company who has to make decisions about the purchase of health innovations.

Discussion

• Findings

• What makes a good collaboration between stakeholders?

• What could improve such a collaboration?

More information

• www.brabantseproeftuindementie.nl (Dutch)