The 5th SHAPES dialogue workshop “Beyond the pilots – Upscaling and transfer of person-centred digital solutions in integrated care pathways in Europe” was held online on the 3rd of May 2022 and intended to bring out aspects or criticalities to be addressed when adopting, upscaling and transferring technological solutions to foster the development of integrated care systems, including governance and policy-related challenges.

Following the introduction to SHAPES by its Coordinator Malcolm MacLachlan, University of Maynooth, Evert-Jan Hoogerwerf, AIAS Bologna – The WeCareMore Centre for Research and Innovation, presented the 4-Wheel Framework for technology adoption in integrated care and how it was developed within SHAPES. More than 150 impacting factors have been identified which were then clustered into thematic domains and phases in the adoption process – the result is the 4-wheel framework model. Sonja Grigoleit, Fraunhofer INT, dove deeper into the SHAPES pilots’ technologies and Maite Ferrando, Seuro project, shared the model for the transfer of innovation that was developed in SEURO.

The second part of the SHAPES dialogue workshop focused on the two different perspectives of solutions developers and the perspective of managers. It was organised as a roundtable with key stakeholders and interactive sessions with participants and was moderated by Luk Zelderloo, former Secretary General of the European Association of Service providers for persons with disabilities, who emphasised that “Technology might not be the problem, the problem is how to make it work in care services and care facilities.”

Barbara Guerra, Edgeneering, and Lisa Cesario, AIAS Bologna, provided the perspective of developers. Through the Mural white board, participants were given the opportunity to provide input on what strategy they would recommend to developers to increase the likeliness of the large-scale uptake of their solutions. The key strategies mentioned were: 1) Co-creation 2) Engage all relevant stakeholders 3) Ethics by design 4) Involve public institutions.

Noa Nitzan, former Head of the Technology Center Beit Issie Shapiro and Suzanne Martin, Medicines Optimisations Innovation Centre, provided the insights of managers in care.

Through the Mural white board, participants were given the opportunity to provide input on what they would recommend to any service provider that aims to successfully adopt person-centred technology in integrated care: 1) Ensure workload for caregivers (professional and informal) does not increase (too much) 2) Support decision making for persons with disabilities and the right to opt-out 3) Need to balance individual needs with population needs 4) Change narrative: older people are empowered.

In their concluding remarks Luk Zelderloo, Evert-Jan Hoogerwerf and Malcolm MacLachlan reiterated that the potential for upscaling integrated care is huge but needs to consider critical factors such as the human factor, ongoing support, using empowerment and having technology which is resilient in terms of different environments – the principal factor for upscaling is related to getting the basics right.

The recording of the 5th Dialogue Workshop can be found on the dedicated SHAPES page, Click here!