Integrated healthcare and care through distance-spanning solutions

It is not uncommon for people receiving care for the elderly to also be in regular in contact with various healthcare providers. This involves services in home care, home healthcare,primary care and specialist care in hospitals. For citizens, it is of no importance who is responsible for what. The main thing is that both healthcare and social care are coordinated and that they work for the individuals.

For all those in need of intervention, it would mean a lot if it were possible to increase cooperation between the various welfare organisations. It is in this respect that the project Integrated healthcare and care with distance-spanning technologies has had tremendous relevance. It is about many practical steps that can be resolved with the support of welfare technology and remote solutions

The project Integrated healthcare and care with distance-spanning technologies (iVOPD) focuses on the importance of cooperation between welfare institutions at regional and local levels. The project’s first undertaking was to map out and present model areas for integrated healthcare and care with distance-spanning technologies. The publication Integrated Healthcare and Care through distance-spanning solutions – for increased service accessibility presents the results of the survey, with descriptions of how five Nordic regional networks work with integrated care. The report also contains a theoretical framework focusing on how governance, as a way of leading, can make cooperation between regions and municipalities work.

Finland’s regional reform interesting

Collaboration between regions and municipalities around welfare technology and distance-spanning solutions is already under way, in both structured form and project form. In the Nordic region, Finland is first up with a major regional form that was implemented on 1 January 2023.

“It’s very interesting, what’s now happening in Finland. Virtually all the healthcare and care for which municipalities were previously responsible form part of the new wellbeing services counties,” says Bengt Andersson, project leader at the Nordic Welfare Centre.

The project focuses to a greater extent on the importance of cooperation between the different operations and organisations in welfare to achieve integrated healthcare and care for the citizens of the Nordic countries with the support of welfare technology and distance-spanning solutions.

“Cooperating can be difficult! Trust and networking is necessary to be able to cooperate and put the focus on the needs of citizens.”

Another focus of the project is how remote solutions in health care and care have an impact on sustainability and the climate. Remote solutions can allow people to live in rural areas and still enjoy access to high quality services. But how can we measure the climate impact of these solutions? In November 2024, the project published a report presenting examples that measure the impacts on carbon dioxide emissions, as well as a selection of the SDGs in the report Distance spanning solutions in health care and care: Climate impacts and sustainability synergies.

In the project Healthcare and care through distance-spanning solutions (VOPD), the Nordic Welfare Centre collaborated with Centre for Rural Medicine in the Swedish region of Västerbotten. iVOPD has continued this work, as well as Integrated Health care with distance-spanning technologies. The project was being run within the framework of specific activities being carried out in the action plan for the Nordic Council of Ministers’ Vision 2030. iVOPD is cross-sectoral and encompassed, among other things, the labour market in the welfare sector and the green transition.