Camilla Evensson is the ACE Project Coordinator and manager of the ‘Future Health and Care’ focus area at RISE, Sweden’s leading research institute and innovation partner.
Could you give us a bit of background about yourself and your work at RISE?
I am the manager of RISE’s ‘Future Health and Care’ focus area, which aims to gather actors in society who can contribute to creating sustainable healthcare and social care based on the individual's perspective. We work with innovation from a systems perspective that includes leadership, competence, interaction with industry, new technology solutions, and new types of cross-sectoral partnerships between regions, municipalities, businesses, and civil society.
What is RISE’s main role in the ACE project?
RISE is the lead partner of the ACE project, and we are also work package and activity leaders.
RISE is a state-owned company, and our core mission is highly connected to why this project is of great importance and relevance for us. RISE’s mission is to facilitate sustainable growth in Sweden by strengthening competitiveness and innovation in the business community and in the public sector.
We will strive to ensure that caregivers are well-prepared to adapt to demographic challenges and meet the demands of an ageing population, with the support of innovations in both homecare technology and caregiving practices.
What are the main challenges for homecare in Europe today?
Society experiences demographic changes with an increasing number of older adults, and with that an increasing need for homecare services, while the available workforce in the healthcare and care sector is shrinking. Society needs, for example, to accelerate the use and uptake of new innovative technology and other solutions, to support the care providers and the older adults. To successfully address the homecare needs it is crucial to support technology and solution providers. These businesses are at the forefront of developing the innovative solutions required to meet the challenges.
Another challenge we will address in ACE is the need to transform the entire societal ecosystem, in order to tackle challenges more rapidly and progressively. Technological change is not enough to be able to change the current system. Instead, we need to also consider other dimensions, such as social innovation, peer-to-peer learning exchange, organisational behaviour and culture, and the involvement of the care user in the process, alongside other stakeholders like, for instance, tech companies and solution providers.
It’s not always easy to learn transnationally from other innovative actors, like innovators, homecare providers, researchers, or civil society in other countries, but the ACE project provides a fantastic opportunity to learn from one another across the North Sea region.
How does ACE plan to actively involve and engage with target users - senior citizens - to ensure its innovations align with their actual needs and preferences?
In order to set the basis for the homecare of the future, it is key to involve problem owners (care providers) and solution providers (innovators), as well as target users (citizens, older adults, relatives, pensioners’ organisations), research and public authorities. In other words, the entire ecosystem must be represented.
All partners in the ACE project will make use of their vast network of innovators, homecare providers, researchers, policymakers, seniors and the general public to populate various events throughout the project. It is of great importance to involve all relevant stakeholders to be able to, first in the project, identify the most pressing needs from every stakeholder´s perspective, including seniors, relatives, care providers and companies. But it is also vital to, in later stages of the project, trial possible solutions with all stakeholders involved, and how this might change ways of working and what kinds of adaptations that will be needed from the stakeholders’ perspectives. The involvement of the quadruple helix stakeholders is the foundation of the project and will be at the heart of each activity performed.
With the ambition to upscale over 30 innovations tailored to care user needs, how will ACE ensure the long-term sustainability and adaptability of these solutions across various care settings and regions?
Accelerating innovation is not only about upscaling technology, but also raising awareness and guiding the care givers and the older adults who will use the technology. ACE recognises this and implements a transnational action plan for care personnel, to adapt to future innovations and learn from one another.
The ACE project has a unique approach that fosters not only innovation, but also transnational learning exchange, which benefits the full North Sea region homecare landscape. The ACE project will stimulate the delivery of quality service and the independent way of life of care users, by accelerating North Sea region innovations through the adaptation of care providers to upcoming technologies.
The 30+ innovations are directly addressing the care user needs, and the care providers have participated in a learning exchange and adaptations that are necessary to adopt the innovations. These aspects are important when envisioning long-term sustainability.
Healthcare systems across the North Sea region vary greatly, with homecare being no exception. Despite facing the same challenges of ageing population, lack of personnel, and limited implementation of new technology solutions, this leads to a limited knowledge about best practices and innovations available in other areas, thus hindering the innovation potential of the North Sea region. Successful innovations and practices can be transferred to other countries in the North Sea region, benefitting both homecare providers and users who see the service improve, and innovators who internationalise their solutions. The transnational collaboration established in ACE strengthens the homecare innovation ecosystem in the North Sea region, not only by accelerating technology, but also by adapting to it, and by exchanging knowledge about successful practices in the differing systems.
In aiming to manage a digital community of 350+ stakeholders, how do you envision this community's dynamics, and in what ways do you expect it to shape the future direction of homecare?
Our vision is to support the ecosystem of actors within the homecare sector with a digital community, where the most pressing needs of care providers and older adults are matched with the most suitable solutions from companies and civil society. Here, innovation capacities and the uptake of advanced technologies are enhanced by gathering and involving all stakeholders in the homecare ecosystem.
ACE will provide access to a wide range of innovative technologies, solutions and support systems tailored to the unique needs of older adults and relatives, supporting them in maintaining their independence and well-being. We will strive to ensure that caregivers are well-prepared to adapt to demographic challenges and meet the demands of an ageing population, with the support of innovations in both homecare technology and caregiving practices. The project will support technology and solution providers that are at the forefront of developing the innovative solutions needed to address the specific requirements of caregivers and older adults, thereby increasing the maturity and scalability of the technology providers.
During project implementation, we aim to present both an attractive vision of how the future homecare ecosystem could look, and also reveal the existing gaps in the system, illuminating what needs to change in order to realise that vision.