VITLAB – eHealth and eInclusion Innovation Ecosystem

e-Resater Newsletter_052015

Background

Name of your initiative:

Short name (acronym):

VITLAB

Website title and address:

VITLAB e-Resater

Which organization is submitting this initiative?:

INTRAS Foundation

Please specify in which regions/provinces:

ESPAÑA›NOROESTE

City:

Valladolid

Where is this organization located?:

Spain

Please enter the name of the contact person for this initiative:

Rosa Almeida

Please enter the email of the contact for this initiative:

admin.vitlab@intras.es

Part of larger strategy or programme:

European

If you answered "other", please specify:

Please provide us with more details of this programme or strategy:

INTERREG SUDOE: Territorial Cooperation Programme Southwest of Europe

The status of the initiative:

On-going

Please give a summary of your initiative (in English):

VITLAB is an open innovation platform to promote an ecosystem to favor collaborative innovation processes in the field of e-Health and e-Inclusion. These processes are based on the capabilities of different agents involved in the creation of methodologies, tools and structures oriented to the development and the improvement of solutions for the main challenges in this field of SUDOE countries. VITLAB is a tool for supporting and exchanging of knowledge in order to encourage the development of social and healthcare innovation, mainly in rural areas.

The geographical scope:

European

Type of initiative:

Public-private-partnership

Environment or setting of the initiative:

Rural

The economic environment or setting of the initiative:

Moderate

The most important source of funding for your initiative:

European funding

If other, please specify your source of funding:

What triggered this initiative?:

In the last years numerous initiatives at local, regional and European level have focused on interventions in e-Health and e-Inclusion. These projects have developed activities to promote technical progress, economic efficiency and the maintenance of social and health services, and finally the care quality in rural territories. Given the major obstacles observed in different projects, as well as the experience in RESATER were defined intervention lines that use innovative methodology and a user-centered approach which covers a complex stakeholder’s network. The most relevant difficulties observed in the territory SUDOE were: Difficulty matching the supply with the demand: The lack of supply with local availability of e-health products or services is a problem to meet the needs of the population and the health and social entities. Methodologies and tools are hardly accessible: we talk of methodologies and tools allowing the relieve of the population needs regarding the imperatives such as equal access to health and social services, quality of care and services provided by the proximity support network, improve efficiency and reduce costs, promote quality of life and means for an independent life, encourage the free choice of the life and care options. Unawareness of innovative approaches compatible with operative and cohesive local networks of social and health providers. This e-health and e-inclusion network involve different levels of support that are provided by private and public organizations as business clusters or ICT companies, research and technological centers, Living Labs, Universities, user associations and other organizations with social and health scope. With the purpose of overcoming these difficulties the e-RESATER Knowledge network (funded by the Territorial Cooperation Programme SUDOE Interreg IV B) works to provide a Communication Space that promotes the Exchange of Experiences, involving all local actors directly or indirectly involved in the territorial development.

Objectives

What are the main objectives of your initiative? Choose a maximum of 3 objectives.:

Civic participation: increase in possibilities for active civic participation of older peopleCommunication and information: increase in communication and information suitable for targeted at older peopleCommunity support and health services: increase in client-oriented and -centered made to measure health and social care and services

Please describe any subgoals of your initiative:

e-RESATER is an innovative project presenting a new health and social approach based on 4 intervention lines. e-Resater also support the continuity of the RESATER Project actions (health network and telemedicine in rural territory from 2009 to 2012) since both aimed the development of conditions that empowers the local health networks to use efficiently and economically viable e-Health and e-Inclusion services with capability to improve the quality care in rural areas. The actions determined in e-RESATER Project will ensure an effective response to the identified obstacles observed in RESATER supporting the quality of care in the SUDOE territory through an intervention based on a continuous and financially viable open innovation concept. The efforts of the e-RESATER partners and the local networks that support the actions are oriented to improve the competitiveness in the SUDOE territory regarding the advanced care services. The project is based on two main objectives: 1) Support the IT offer, suited to the populational needs, through the incentive and support promoting user-centred and driven approaches; 2) Sustaining the methodological and IT offer in a competent and interoperable network both in the technical and human level. Through VITLAB (Virtual environment promoted by the e-Resater network) the Public needs treated are: - Raising awareness and promoting combined processes and policies for a better balance supply and demand, through participatory and results-oriented approaches open to the entire value chain/stakeholders (support the technology development, suited and centred in the user needs); - Sustaining the technological offer in a competent and interoperable (in a technical and human level) innovation network.

Target group

Does your initiative target people with a specific impairment or disease?:

How many people have you reached or do you expect to reach with your initiative?:

1000 - 10.000

Does your initiative target a specific age group?:

Does your initiative target men or women?:

Irrelevant

Approach

Please indicate what best describes your initiative:

Implementation›ICT›CommunicationImplementation›ICT›MonitoringKnowledge transferPolicy

What type of intervention strategy is used in your initiative?:

Living lab/pilotUser-empowerment and participation

Please indicate the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of your initiative:

Prototype and implementation: level 7-9

Who executes the initiative:

HospitalNon-governmental organisationPrimary health care providers›General practitionerProvider of ambulatory health careProvider of informal careProvider of preventive careProvider of social serviceResearch/educational setting

What is the relevant physical scale of your initiative?:

European levelNational levelRegional level

Please indicate how you think your initiative could be scaled up (made to reach more people):

VITLAB is an open virtual space dedicated to exchange of information, practices and experiences, promoting active and open collaboration. Therefore, the e-Resater Knowledge Network and the broad community have been invited to participate providing their contribution for raising awareness / giving visibility about initiatives in the field of e-health and e-inclusion (local, regional, national, at the SUDOE level or even beyond the SUDOE space). Added value: - Transpose the e-Resater Quadruple Helix of Innovation to a Co-Working Virtual Environment based on Open Innovation Processes, Information, Tools and Opportunities to bridge the gap decreasing distance and encouraging collaboration; - Strengthening the e-Resater Knowledge Network encouraging a genuine Open-Innovation and Collaborative ecosystem; - Flexible Guiding Methodology allowing an Horizontal management by the different partners and e-Resater InnoHub's and services customization (network, content, and resources are continuously changing and improving, given the opportunity for reflecting the growth of local ecosystems and the services offered by each InnoHub and by the network itself); In short, create value in terms of innovation in products and services, Methodological Innovation, Transfer of Innovation and know-how, Organizational Innovation, Social Innovation.

Please indicate the type of stakeholders concerned with your initiative.:

Health service contracters›Health insurance agenciesHealth service contracters›OtherHealth service contracters›Public authorityHospitalNon-governmental organisationPrimary health care providers›General practitionerPrimary health care providers›NursePrimary health care providers›OtherPrimary health care providers›PhysiotherapistPrivate company›Large companyPrivate company›Micro-enterprisePrivate company›Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME)Provider of ambulatory health careProvider of informal careProvider of medical goodsProvider of preventive careProvider of social serviceResearch/educational settingResidential long-term care facilitiesThe Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

Please describe how you think your initiative could be transferred to other regions or contexts:

Synergies across Networks, Projects and Initiatives Collaborative alliances have been established to boost / intensify the Activity of the e-Resater Network (at a regional, national, SUDOE and European level) and the link with the e-Resater stakeholders, ensuring a delocalized planning and cooperation, supported by a consolidated methodological framework and an ecosystem, that is being at the same time reinforced with this strategic planning. In this sense have been developed and planned research activities among other initiatives based on the collaboration and coordination with stakeholders, supported and facilitated by VITLAB.

Is your initiative economically sustainable and does it contribute to economic development?:

- VITLAB resources & model will be capitalized through efforts for maintaining and seeking new synergies with projects, networks and other initiatives for a win-win collaboration. The most relevant services available are the access to an e-Health Solutions Catalogue, e-Resater Observatory, Offer and Demand Campaigns, TestBenchs, Consultancy Oriented e-Health Innovation Cycles, Public and Private Spaces Innovation. - Flexible General Business Model Planned, oriented to promote sustainable innovation as ultimate end, in the form of an umbrella for Independent Business Models associated with LL services promoted through VITLAB by Partners and Certified Members (InnoHub, Living Lab, FabLabs, User Centres, etc. with proved experience ensuring quality of services). - VITLAB ensures minimum validation requirements and supervision. The management carried out by partners or members is at their own responsibility. The existence of an Expert Panel and facilitators (e-Resater partners) allow continue fostering VITLAB Model and objectives after the project end.

If you selected "other" neighbourhood, please specify::

Impact & outcome

Will you collect or have you collected outcome data for this initiative?:

Yes

What do you consider the key success factors of your initiative? If your initiative has not yet started, please indicate what you expect the key success factors to be:

Number of new collaborations established Number of projects proposals and new initiatives defined and/or implemented Number of pilots of IT solutions for e-Health Number of Events for exchange of experience Number of new members Measuring participation of members and visitors in VITLAB (open platform for e-Health innovation and exchange of information and good practices, empowering and putting in contact the Quadruple Helix of Innovation in a co-working virtual environment)

What do you consider the main barriers to overcome in your initiative? If your initiative has not yet started, please indicate what you expect the main barriers to be.:

Promoting Open Innovation implies using one common language once translation tools are not currently very effective to authpmatically translate contributions in the webpage (e.g. follow contributions offered to the Blog entries and expert forums). Also the knowledge is still treated sometimes as "power", and "power" is sometimes difficult to share. In brief, It is difficult to generate catalogues of good practices, initiatives and methodlogies without promoting raising awareness campaigns about the importance and benefits of open innovation, searching for adequate methods and tools easy to use, transparent processes of participation,...

What instruments will you use/have used to collect data?:

Other, namely

If you selected "other" instrument to collect data, please specify:

If yes, how will you/have you collected those data?:

Mixed-methods

Will you collect or have collected socio-economic impact data for this initiative?:

Yes

Will or are the collected data in the initiative publicly available?:

Yes