The partners of the H2020 EU project Smart4Health – Citizen-Centred EU-EHR Exchange for Personalised Health, met in Lisbon for a 3-days’ meeting organised by UNINOVA (Instituto de Desenvolvimento de Novas Tecnologias). This meeting was a good opportunity for the WP leaders to provide more insight into the work done so far by each Work Package in the development of an EHR solution that is fit-for-purpose in a digital single market for wellbeing and healthcare. The partners could then discuss these progresses, and the steps further to develop the work further, with a special focus on the user requirements for the platform, the Citizen User Case (CUCs) and how to engage all the partners, the citizens and the users (HCP) into the process, and the technical aspects of the tools and the platform being developed by the IT partners. The partners also had the chance to learn more about the physiotherapy machine (for back pain prevention) & sensors’ tools being developed to get in-deep data (on back pain) for the project platform, in a visit to UNINOVA premises.
In order to bring the discussions one step further, a co-creation workshop was organised with the aim to finalize the methods’ toolbox for the CUCs, which came out with very concrete next steps to be taken forward in the upcoming months, as the development of common infrastructure guidelines for CUC 1 & 2, and the clear understanding/collection of which data is key for citizens & users and how to integrate it the EHR platform from a technical point of view (all the other CUCs).
Digitalisation is key to support frontline healthcare professionals, and namely nurses, and increase direct patient care. As such, fit-for-purpose EHR solutions to be used to improve health outcomes and increase the quality and safety in the health and social care ecosystems in the EU are crucial. In this, the requirements and mechanisms co-designed with the end-users are key to ensure the utility and suitability of the developed solutions. Integrated care and the digital tools deployed should empower patients and frontline nurses, moving towards an ecosystem based on proactive/empowered health-aware patient/citizen.
As end-user partner in the project, the EFN has been very committed to the project, providing policy expertise in co-creation, and trying to bring in the views of the 3 million nurses the EFN represents through its 36 Members National Nursing Associations.