AMSTERDAM, November 17, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --
Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) and its ACT-program consortium partners today announced the debut of a 'cookbook' outlining key enablers necessary to scale connected care and telehealth programs. The cookbook is the result from a two-and-a-half year scientific evaluation of data from different connected health programs in five European regions. It provides new insights that apply across the EU on why certain telehealth programs are more successful than others.
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Connected care is seen by many governments as essential to enable more efficient, patient-centric and continuous care for the aging EU population; however, although many local connected care pilot programs are successful, they fail to scale and their potential impact is not fully leveraged.
The consortium researched data from patients with COPD, diabetes and heart failure in programs in the Basque Country (Spain), Catalonia (Spain), Scotland (UK), North of the Netherlands, and Lombardy (Italy) and conducted 2,500 surveys and group interviews with participating patients and care providers.
The consortium found that the scalability of care coordination and telehealth is possible, but requires significant organizational change to successfully execute the process. It also unveiled critical areas in which progress is required in order to enable the transformation to more sustainable healthcare systems.
The cookbook advises that patients are assigned a single point of contact when enrolled in care coordination programs with several institutions and care providers to prevent them from feeling lost and diverging advices. Staff engagement is critical as in programs where staff understanding and engagement levels were high patient adherence was better compared to programs with lower engagement scores. Preventative care programs outperform reactive healthcare delivery. Improved standardization and interoperability within the European Union would enable benchmarking and leveraging successful programs beyond local pilots.
“Smarter use of digital innovation is crucial in order to enable active ageing and healthy living,” said Andrus Ansip, Vice President, Digital Single Market, European Commission. “The Advancing Care Coordination and Telehealth Deployment (ACT)-program illustrates that care coordination and telehealth can address care needs and support long-term sustainability of health and social care delivery.”
"Successful coordinated care and telehealth are principally about organizational change," said Professor Stanton Newman of Health Psychology, School of Health Sciences, City University London, UK. "To achieve the best outcomes for patients, we need to review the way these organizations are structured and make sure everyone is aligned on the objectives and goals of integrating care coordination and telehealth into patient care pathways."
"Connected care is critical to the future of our healthcare systems," said Jeroen Tas, Chief Executive Officer, Healthcare Informatics Solutions and Services, Philips. "The ACT research shows that successful connected care services may start with having the right technology, but it is truly about the holistic approach of technology, processes and people to make an effective transformation."
The cookbook is available for download and more information can be found on the ACT Program's website: http://www.act-programme.eu
Uniting leading European healthcare experts from a number of domains, the ACT program is part of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP-AHA). The EIP-AHA is an initiative from the European Commission under its Innovation Union strategy, and aims to increase the average healthy lifespan by two years by 2020.
Background information on the study results and regional programs can be found here.
About Royal Philips
Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) is a diversified health and well-being company, focused on improving people's lives through meaningful innovation in the areas of Healthcare, Consumer Lifestyle and Lighting. Headquartered in the Netherlands, Philips posted 2014 sales of EUR 21.4 billion and employs approximately 106,000 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries. The company is a leader in cardiac care, acute care and home healthcare, energy efficient lighting solutions and new lighting applications, as well as male shaving and grooming and oral healthcare. News from Philips is located at http://www.philips.com/newscenter.
About ACT
The ACT consortium members include:
And affiliate members:
Foundation Zorg Binnen Bereik (Care within Reach), Amersfoort, The Netherlands; Center of Technology in Medicine and Health (CTMH), Sweden; Basque healthcare technology provider (OSATEK ), Spain; Galicia Region (SERGAS), Spain; Saxonia Region, Germany.
For further information, please contact:
Steve Klink
Philips Group Communications
Tel.: +31-6-10-88-88-24
E-mail: steve.klink@philips.com
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