A group of 25 young participants from the German Managed Care Association (Bundesverband Managed Care, BMC) paid a working visit to Vilans on 19 October for a morning of intense discussions on various aspects of innovation in person-centred care and technology. BMC has over 230 members and is a platform for debate, networking and knowledge dissemination. BMC e. V. | Welcome to the German Managed Care Association – BMC e. V. (bmcev.de)
Technological Innovations
Representing Vilans as a knowledge organisation that also works internationally to disseminate knowledge on long-term care, researcher Nick Zonneveld presented several of the organisation’s innovations, concerning in particular, elder care. For example, Vilans is involved in substantive support of and research into citizen initiatives aimed at welfare and care. Zonneveld noted that caring communities can certainly help solve the current problems in care (for example regarding the great shortage of personnel). But it is not a comprehensive solution; there is also a need to look at the impact of technology and ways of making care more attractive as a sector in which to work.
Zonneveld also elaborated on his own research on Values in Integrated Care. Insight into values is important, because values can explain behaviour when healthcare organisations work together. They also form a common starting point for the development and improvement of integrated care.
Positive Health
Femke de Wit, Vilans expert on person-centred care, introduced the participants to the concept of Positive Health. This starts with reflecting on and practising the concept of Positive Health, which sees health not as an end in itself, but as part of the quality of life. It is not the illness that should be central, but the person himself, the resilience of the individual and what he finds important for his own life.
eHealth
Xandra van Megen, researcher in care technology and eHealth, outlined a number of promising technology projects, in which Vilans researches the added value for the client and the care provider. As an example she highlighted the cooperation in the project, Anders Werken in de Zorg (Working Differently in Healthcare) that applies technology to assist regional networking of care providers, including research into the results and costs associated with innovations such as, the Hip Airbag. In this regard, Vilans supports organisations in their implementation and organises workshops to share knowledge and experience.
The working visit to Vilans was rounded off by Dr Jeroen Struijs, RIVM and LUMC Campus The Hague, who outlined the developments in the field of innovative funding models. Under the motto ‘Steal with pride’, he used the innovative primary care organisation, Arts en Zorg (Doctors and Care) as an example. Lessons learned from the application of cross-domain chain DBCs provided insight into alternative ways of steering for desired outcomes.
