Improving Interaction in Integrated Chronic Care Management

Abstract

Health and social care services are under increasing pressure to come up with adequate solutions to manage the demand and supply equation. Integrated care is one way to deal with this wicked problem, but new approaches and service implementation strategies are necessary to realize its full value and quality of outcome. Focusing on the four relevant 'blocks of interaction' identified by Prahalad and Ramaswamy, the paper examines the key role of information and communication technology (ICT) in facilitating the integrated care effort. It then develops those insights into a set of DART-informed guiding principles of practical use to decision-makers and IS/IT developers in the design of resource integration mechanisms for the management of chronic care settings. The paper uses home care services as a blueprint.

Improving access to prescription-based care through patient-centered smart pharmacy ecosystems

“…Smart pharmacies have enaged a task force of mobile pharmacists who can visit patients wherever they are, tele-pharmacy technologies, or both, are necessary to provide these services at home [40]. With at-home care settings, patient experience extends beyond dyadic relationships and is mediated by a vast array of technologies and platforms [41]. Care at home is a result of interplay of actors in the healthcare ecosystem that adapt technology for patient empowerment with systemic changes that present new focus areas for stakeholders across the value chain [33].…”

Responding to COVID – 19: Insight Into Capability Re-Configuration of Healthcare Service Ecosystems? The Use Case of Hospitalization at Home

“…These processes need to be design to help overcome hurdles of arranging care, following treatment regimens and controlling symptoms. Away from the traditionally controlled flow mechanisms (Badr et al, 2019). The demand to coordinate care from a mix of providers puts a strain on a system that must reconfigure itself for the variance in constraints and variety of conditions.…”

“…In the HaH setting, the patient is generally in a known comfortable setting. The experience is then borne out of interactions, communications and transactions, controlled by the patient, in the majority (Badr et al, 2019). That said, the gain in value of the patient's experience an also bear a new set of challenges that must be overcome, in the form of interaction with informal caregivers at home, through the use of domotic devices or other issues of technology literacy addressed in the next section.…”

“…In order to maintain a positive patient experience, such systems must take into account the prior experience in using assistive technology and the patient's strengths and weaknesses in areas such as reading, writing, math, spelling, listening, memory, and organization. This may necessitate adequate training and encouragement to learn the required skills -or the provisioning of a technology support system, added on the health ecosystem (Badr et al, 2019).…”