Purpose: The better utilization of technology as the most promising solution for the sustainability challenge created by the ageing population has been stated (European Environment Agency 2020, Technology Advisory Board 2021). However, the challenges existand they are related not only to the technologies utilizedbut to their impacts and integration into the user contexts, such as the services in which they are used.The programme, presented here, introduced and implemented the services that needs to be reformed with technology for people living at home within home care. 

Method: To provide tools for inspiration by introducing regional implementation of technologies and digital services for well-being, ageing and care of older people at home in Finland in a governmental programme called ‘Smart Ageing and Care at Home’ (‘KATI’ for the Finnish Acronym, Anttila et al. 2021). Six regional projects across seven regions in Finland including municipalities or associations of municipalities, actors from both the third and private sectors, and universities as partners participated in the programme in 2021-2022. Technologies were acquired according to regional needs by usual procurement. The programme was coordinated by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL). To systematically assess the technologies and their impacts and integration into the user contexts, a shared guideline and platform was built for the regional projects to support them and to follow their own regional plans. The platform provided a concise way to guide the regional projects to evaluate the impacts and to describe the adoption of technology solutions and operation models that the regional projects intergrate into their services. 

Results and Discussion: The regional projects have carried out pilots and deployments of various technology devices, services and systems (e.g. monitoring technologies, solutions supporting social activity, and technologies for care professionals) together with independent older adults, homecare customers, family members and care professionals. They have also implemented technology to collect health-related data to be used in care services to support independent and safe living at home, and developed registries for devices and applications. Moreover, they have educated and trained homecare professionals for technology use, developed new care work roles, procurement processes and support services, and produced digital health technology assessments (Haverinen et al., 2019). Altogether, they piloted numerous technology solutions and developed operation models (e.g. video care and communication solutions, medicine dispension and monitoring devices, Artificial Intelligence services predicting changes in end-customers health and wellbeing, showrooms for seniors, 3D virtual training environments, and online shops to buy technologies for public services). THL has guided the project to report the impact of the technologies technology solutions and operation models in a systematic way.

Lecture and workshop: To introduce regional implementation of technologies and digital services for well-being, ageing and care of older people at home in Finland in a governmental programme called ‘Smart Ageing and Care at Home’ (‘KATI’ for the Finnish Acronym) in 2021-2022. Technologies were acquired according to regional needs by usual procurement.

In the workshop we present evaluation results and the Finnish model to implement technologies for ageing and care of older people at home (the KATI model). It was developed based on the experiences from the renewed service models in the regional projects. The model also includes the technology solutions that the regional projects integrated into their services.

The participants will get knowledge about well-working service models, how technologies have been implemented successfully in Satakunta wellbeing services sounty, as well as remaining challenges to be overcome. We will discuss with the participants how the model can be used in other regions. We and the participants will share experiences on implementing technology in home care services.

We will present national plan for continuous collaboration and Finnish healthtech network for wellbeing services counties. Participants can share their expectations, possibilities and contributions to share good practices, and for international collaboration. Participants can also ask questions about and familiriaze themselves with Suvanto Care products, the technology that was implemented in the Satakunta wellbeing services county. 

We expect discussion and feedback from participants of the KATI model and the Finnish coordination model.

References

Towards ethical and sustainable technology-supported ageing at home in Finland – KATI programme. Anttila, H., Niemelä, M., Anttila, M., Pekkarinen, S., Hallamaa, J. & Koskinen, J. (2021). Conference of Technology Ethics (Tethics 2021), 20.-22.10.2021 Turku, Finland. http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3069/FP_03.pdf

European Environment Agency. (2020). The sustainability transition in Europe in an age of demographic and technological change. ISBN 978-92-9480-238-5. doi:10.2800/571570. 

Haverinen, J., Keränen, N., Falkenbach, P., Maijala, A., Kolehmainen, T., & Reponen, J. (2019). Digi-HTA: Health technology assessment framework for digital healthcare services. Finnish Journal of EHealth and EWelfare, 11(4), 326–341. https://doi.org/10.23996/fjhw.82538

Technology Advisory Board. (2021). Suomenteknologiapolitiikka 2020-luvulla – Teknologialla ja tiedollamaailman kärkeen (Finnish technology policy in 2020s – A global leader through technology and information). Publications of the Ministry of Finance 2021:30. http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-367-692-3