Associate Feature: User Requirements for Co-Managed Digital Health and Care

Health and care systems worldwide face unprecedented sustainability challenges.  

We must shift the balance of care to communities and enable a system that supports person-centred, integrated, co-managed and sustainable care. Digital technologies can enable this. 

DHI reviewed its co-design activities, having engaged 3500+ citizens and 1000+ professionals across health boards, charities, and social care providers to generate insights across diverse areas, including, healthy ageing, mental health, and long-term condition management.  

Findings demonstrate consistent needs relating to how data is co-managed to improve care experiences and outcomes. The consensus is around the need to support:  

• personal storytelling 
• sharing of health and care experiences to inform personalised guidance  
• visualisation of trends, issues, and opportunities to support decision-making 
• enhancement of ongoing dialogue between a citizen and their care professionals 

Digital health and care investment is focused on siloed products to provide these capabilities to clinical specialties or condition groups.  

DHI has uncovered a largely unmet need to connect broader circles of care, involving professional and informal carers and working across domain boundaries.

There is a need to develop digital solutions which join up data to reflect people’s lived experience and define their health and wellbeing beyond what a clinical record system holds. This should include personal, social, and environmental needs, experiences, and outcomes if we are to move to a personalised and impactful approach.  

Many of the requirements involve data sharing across domains, giving citizens more power and tools to ‘tell their story once’.

Although these imperatives are reflected in an array of Scottish Government strategies relating to data, digital, health and care, real-life examples of progress are limited. 

DHI has published these findings to support commissioners and innovators to shift from a system-led and condition-specific approach to a person-centred, whole-of-life model and are keen to partner on practical ways to do so. 

Chaloner Chute is chief technology officer with the Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre (DHI) 

This article was sponsored by the Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre (DHI)