COLLABORATION. Completely new ways of running healthcare can now be tested with the help of testbeds in several European countries. Behind the proposal is the European We Care Consortium that presented its plan for sustainable care in the latest issue of the Lancet. The Consortium is coordinated by Sahlgrenska Academy and has now received continued financing from the EU.
In a research article in the Lancet, the Consortium presented seven areas where innovation and policy changes are needed to attain economically sustainable, good quality healthcare. The areas of focus have been developed in broad discussions with important actors from patient organizations, the pharmaceutical industry, the technology sector, academia and healthcare throughout Europe, and includes such things as quality measures, infrastructure and organizational models at the micro and macro levels. For care to be both cost effective and humane, great importance is placed on preventative care and the introduction of person-centered work methods.
– It is absolutely vital that we begin to think in another way if we are to attain sustainable care. One example is a remuneration system that is based on how many patients a doctor sees per hour, instead of how many hours a doctor works. That does not provide economic incentive to take the necessary time to be able to listen and take advantage of the patient’s capabilities, says Professor Inger Ekman of the University of Gothenburg, Coordinator for the European We Care Consortium.
Controlled care environments
In the We Care report, it is proposed that a number of testbeds be introduced in several European countries. It concerns controlled care environments with different conditions, where abilities, obstacles and effects of changes in the remuneration system and other ideas can be tested.
In their article in the Lancet, the Consortium’s representatives estimate that it will require an investment of nearly one billion SEK to investigate what obstacles exist and to arrive at possible solutions that can provide more sustainable care. This investment is only a fraction of the funding currently required to run healthcare in Europe.
See the person’s abilities
The cultural change that the western world faces, in large part, concerns changing the focus from the disease a patient has, to include being able to take advantage of the individual capacity for health that exists in each and every one of us,” explains Inger Ekman,
“Today’s medical research strongly focuses on individual adaptation, where biological expression in different tests shows which treatment is most suitable for that specific patient. Individual adaptation is good, but we also have to follow a parallel track, where we realize that everyone is completely unique in their ability and capacity to handle their disease.”
The European investment, We Care, was started with funding from the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme and has now, following stiff competition, been given the green light to continue on the path to sustainable care. Within the framework program, Horisont 2020, the EU has appropriated further funding to the Consortium.
Read the report on the road map that the We Care Consortium has agreed upon.
