Kategorie: News

A small SCIROCCO focus group met on 23 August 2017 in the regional headquarters in Luleå, Norrbotten.

In June/July 2017, using the SCIROCCO Maturity Model tool, nine local stakeholders in the region completed a regional self-assessment of where Norrbotten is in terms of moving towards integrated care. In August, this smaller group of people then reflected on their lessons learned.

A 90-minute session, facilitated by SCIROCCO team members, examined different ways of improving the SCIROCCO tool. The participants looked especially at what had worked well, what had worked less well, and how the SCIROCCO tool can be used moving forward.

Among the main observations that emerged from the session were:

• The view of the process and experience of using the SCIROCCO tool was positive. The guidelines and training received before use were constructive. The tool is particularly helpful for enabling local stakeholders to reflect on the current situation and future directions.
• The tool could be put to many other uses, including making policy decisions; undertaking regular assessments; and deciding on initiatives, programmes, and projects in which to get involved.
• The tool seems quite constructive in comparison to some other tools with which the team is familiar.

Over the next six weeks, SCIROCCO looks forward to organising four more focus groups with the partner regions: the Basque Country in Spain; Olomouc in the Czech Republic; Puglia in Italy; and Scotland in the United Kingdom.

In facilities offered by University College Dublin as part of the 17th International Conference on Integrated Care (ICIC) conference, a SCIROCCO focus group met on 9 May 2017. A series of focus groups is being organised to learn from the experience of European regions in using the SCIROCCO tool to assess their readiness for integrated care.

The session brought together European regions that are members of the European Regional and Local Health Authorities (EUREGHA) http://www.euregha.net and participants in a European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP-AHA) B3 Action Group ‘sprint’ https://ec.europa.eu/eip/ageing/actiongroup/index/b3_en.
Among the main observations that emerged from the session were:

• The tool can be put to a wide range of uses, including with regional policy-level decision-makers.
• The tool can be used either by individuals or by much larger groups of stakeholders/end-users.
• Besides its role in scaling-up, the tool can help enhance dialogue. It can also be used to monitor progress – perhaps even on an annual basis.
• The focus group provided a good in-depth learning exercise, alongside outcomes from the range of other presentations made at the ICIC conference.

SCIROCCO looks forward to continuing to liaise with EUREGHA and the EIP-AHA B3 AG sprint. SCIROCCO will run its next focus group once the self-assessment exercise with each of the five SCIROCCO regions has taken place.

Save the Date: Tuesday, 10 October 2017, SCIROCCO organises the session “Meeting the Challenge of Ageing: Putting the Citizens at the Heart of Integrated Care in Europe” (11.15 – 13.00 CET at the Scotland House Conference Center, Rond Point Schuman, 6, 1040 Brussels [download agenda]) as part of the 15th European Week of Regions and Cities (EWRC 2017).

This EWRC 2017 event will showcase the work of a number of regions involved in the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP on AHA) – a unique example of a partnership voluntarily-bringing together a wide range of regions, industries, research institutions, and end-user organisations committed to innovating for European citizens‘ needs, by addressing a triple win: health and quality of life; sustainable and efficient care systems; and growth and the expansion of EU industry in line with the Commission’s priorities in jobs, growth and investment, as well as the digital transformation of health and care.

The SCIROCCO session will stimulate discussion with policymakers and practitioners; share regional experience in developing and implementing innovative approaches to integrated care solutions, and reaching out to other regions to accelerate their journey towards innovative systems to meet future demands.

Main messages of the Scirocco event: 

• Putting citizens at the heart of integrated care can unlock the potential of innovation and build the capacities of European regions to address the challenge of ageing.
• Implementation and scaling up of integrated care solutions requires understanding and readiness of the environment that would enable adoption of these solutions.
• Assessing the readiness of a system of care to innovate e.g. with integrated care, helps to build resilience in regions and cities.

Regional Healthcare Authority (ARES) in Puglia, Italy hosted the second SCIROCCO Project Assembly meeting on 27-28 June 2017 in Bari. ARES Puglia is one of the five SCIROCCO regions interested in scaling-up of integrated care solutions and is leading the Work Package on Knowledge Transfer, Twinning and Coaching Activities.

The aim of the meeting was to review the progress of SCIROCCO project, focusing particularly on the experience of regions in applying the SCIROCCO tool in the assessment process of the maturity requirements of good practices as well as the maturity of healthcare systems for integrated care. It was an opportunity for the regions to share the lessons learned from the self-assessment processes and outlined the areas for the further improvement and refinement of the SCIROCCO self-assessment tool.

The key message from the regions was that there was a clear value in applying SCIROCCO tool in the self-assessment processes. It offered the opportunity for the multi-disciplinary dialogue, negotiation and consensus-building that is often lacking in the planning and delivery of the integrated care locally. The learning also emphasised that the multi-dimensional aspect of integrated care and particualrly of scaling-up of integrated care is still rather underestimated.

Dr Andrea Pavlickova presented the SCIROCCO project to the Technology Enabled Health and Care Learning Network on 24 May 2017 in Musselburgh in Scotland. The Learning Network was organised by the Scottish Centre for Telehatlh and Telecare, NHS 24 and the Scottish’s Government’s TEC and Digital Innovation Division. It is an annual learning event with the aim to raise awareness about the implementation and scaling up of digital solutions at national and European level. For SCIROCCO this learning event was an opportunity to reach the national and local stakeholders involved in the design and implementation of technology enabled care solutions and outline how the SCIROCCO tool can help in their ambitions towards integrated care.

For more information about the event (Access Webcast Recording)

SCIROCCO raised awareness on its progress so far in eHealth Week 2017, the largest ministerial conference dedicated to digital health in 2017.

Different means were used to achieve this:

• At the “Speakers‘ Corner”, Marc Lange explained why a tool like the SCIROCCO on-line tool can help a multidisciplinary team in charge of deploying an innovative good practice. Slides available at https://scirphp8.iqmed.cloud/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/2017-05-11-eHealth-Week-Marc-Lange-SCIROCCO-Project-at-Speakers-Corner.pdf
• In the exhibition area, SCIROCCO offered opportunities to visitors to watch a demo video and have conversations to understand better how the SCIROCCO tool can help. The video is available at https://scirphp8.iqmed.cloud/maturity-model-in-practice-scirocco-assessment-tool/
• In the session “Smart Environments and Integrated Care: Helping Europeans to live better not just longer”, Stuart Anderson, University of Edinburgh, UK, explained how the SCIROCCO tool helps to assess the readiness of a healthcare system to deploy integrated care as well as the maturity requirements of a good practice. Slides available at https://scirphp8.iqmed.cloud/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/2017-05-11-eHealth-Week-Stuart-Anderson-Assessing-Readiness-to-Deploy-Integrated-Care.pdf

Dr Andrea Pavlickova presented the SCIROCCO project to the CoR Interregional Group on Health & Wellbeing on 12 May 2017 in Brussels. The focus of the presentation was on the SCIROCCO tool designed to assess the readiness for integrated care in a given healthcare system or the good practice. It was pointed out during the presentation that there was a variety of definitions of integrated care and the integrated care was being adopted at different rates and in diverse ways across Europe. The rationale behind the development of the tool was to maximise the use of the existing knowledge of implementing integrated care solutions and to encourage the exchange of good practices and knowledge transfer in Europe, to be able to use evidence in a systematic way for an easier and faster adoption of integrated care.

For more information about the event (download report)

Presentation by DG Santé (Federico PAOLI SANTE) on the HSPA report BLOCKS Tools and Methodologies to Assess Integrated Care in Europe

The EU Expert Group on Health Systems Performance Assessment (HSPA) has published a new Report Tools and Methodologies to Assess Integrated Care in Europe. The mission of the Expert Group, set up in 2014, is to provide Member States with a forum for exchange of experience on the use of HSPA at national level. The group also supports national policy-makers by identifying tools and methodologies for developing HSPA, defining criteria and procedures for selecting priority areas for HSPA at national and EU levels, as well as intensifying EU cooperation with international organisations, in particular the OECD and WHO. The selected priority area for 2016 was the assessment of integrated care.

The B3 Action Group on Integrated Care of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP on AHA) was invited to collaborate with the EU Expert Group on the Report. The B3 Action Group contributed with the rich collection of good practices in integrated care. In the next stage, it was agreed to apply the Maturity Model, validated through the SCIROCCO project, as the framework to identify the success factors and transferability elements of these good practices. As a result, the Report contains a collection of over 60 case studies with a detailed descriptions of the interventions, target groups, success factors and transferable elements. In addition,the Report outlines in detail the framework for quality assessment of integrated care, including the challennges with the data collection and data quality.

Download full report here

Healthy Ageing is high on the European and global policy agendas. In this context, European and non-European stakeholders working to improve the quality of life of older people will meet in Valencia in several parallel events and conferences between 6^th and 9^th June 2017. They will discuss and propose innovative solutions contributing to encourage Active and Healthy Ageing in Europe. while leveraging the opportunity of the Silver Economy and the Blueprint Strategy, exchanging regional and national good practices from a quadruple helix perspective.

The SCIROCCO project will be featured on the 9^th of June 2017 as part of the joint session of the EU funded projects organized by APPCARE project.

For more information about the event:
http://www.polibienestar.org/polibienestar-celebra-su-semana-de-networking-internacional/?lang=en

We look forward to seeing you in Valencia.

Scirocco presented latest updates and achievements at the 17th International Conference for Integrated Care “Building a platform for integrated care: delivering change that matters to people”, 8 – 10 May 2017 at University College Dublin, Ireland in these sessions and workshops: 

• Monday, 8 May 2017, 09:00 – 10:30, Icon Theatre
  Workshop 1.F: EU-funded Integrated Care for Vulnerable Persons (e.g., chronically ill, multi-morbid, frail elderly) Research Projects: „SCIROCCO: Scaling Integrated Care in Context“ presented by
  Andrea Pavlickova, NHS 24/Scottish Centre for Telehealth and Telecare, UK
• Monday, 8 May 2017, 11:00 – 12:30, O’Connor Theatre
  Session 2.I:  Measurements that support decision-making in integrated care: „Measuring maturity of integrated care: a first validation study presented by Liset Grooten, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
• Monday, 8 May 2017, 13:00 – 14:00, ALE Room H1.49
  Satellite Workshop MLW 5 on the EU Health Programme, chaired by Anne-Marie Yazbeck, European Commission, Chafea: „SCIROCCO Project“ presented by Andrea Pavlickova, NHS 24/Scottish Centre for Telehealth and Telecare, UK
• Tuesday, 9 May 2017, afternoon (on invitation only – Robing Room, O’Reilly Hall)
  SCIROCCO focus group to collect lessons learned from the experience of EUREGHA regions by using the SCIROCCO tool, co-chaired by Tamara Alhambra Borras, University of Valencia, Diane Whitehouse, EHTEL and Andrea Pavlickova NHS 24