Fjallabyggð, HSN and Veltek have confirmed their willingness to increase cooperation and to work on specified projects within innovation and technology in the health and welfare services based on eight main goals:
Fjallabyggð and HSN will, individually and collectively, have an initiating role in the implementation of welfare technology, development, and coordination of the services with the citizen of the municipality.
Fjallabyggð and HSN will, in collaboration with Veltek, work with testing, development and implementation of new service solutions.
Increase cooperation and coordination in the service offering, between institutions, divisions and employees through teamwork and formal consultation and communication channels.
Strengthen cooperation on knowledge sharing, competence development and joint education for citizens, relatives, and employees.
Strengthen the dissemination of information and the publication of educational material for stakeholders and utilize the latest technology for this purpose.
Implement and coordinate work processes and quality standards in the service of the elderly.
Inform and negotiate cooperation to ensure the financing of individual projects and the acquisition of grants for innovation and development.
Commission or carry out research, audits, progress and assessments in the welfare service and the innovation and development projects that the parties launch jointly.
Government policies
The cooperation agreement is also based on a reference to the following government policies:
Actions A4 and A5 in the Regional Plan 2018-2024, where the emphasis is on establishing coordination, teamwork, counselling, education, and quality development in the field of social, health and education.
Charter of the Government of Iceland, which encourages innovation, cooperation in the field of public services and administration, and the strengthening of technological infrastructure and welfare technology.
Emphasis in the government's policy from 2016 in the field of innovation and technology in welfare services.
As the cooperation is still in an early stage, the governance set-up is still being developed between the municipality, health institution and other stakeholders.
Going forward
The key success factors and reflections from the Fjallabyggð project is at an early stage of the cooperation but below are some of the major findings and components identified:
Sharing of data between health and social care is not a tradition and creates difficulties in thinking and designing solutions where data can be shared. Even though the law in Iceland is based on collaboration between health and social, sharing the same database has not been the case. The project aims to do so and develop a solution to make that possible. By not working with shared data, it makes the quality of care more difficult and not as holistic as it could be
The challenge is to make a sustainable solution where the citizen has the possibility to give consent to the use of own data. The main goal is to increase quality of life and the notion on not sharing data maintains silo thinking. Breaking silos is necessary to be able to provide a holistic view and preventive service offering to the citizen so they can stay healthy longer
Based on Fjallabyggð current infrastructure and composition of the society it can showcase a sustainable society where staying healthy long combined with preventive actions is possible because of breaking the silo thinking and make data sharing possible.
The set-up of the cooperation has taken longer than expected and the governance around the agreement still needs to be established and aligned with the stakeholders.
Recommendations to others thinking of a similar project cooperation agreement:
Start - don’t wait
Anchor with management
Anchor with employees