Citizens Participating in their Healthcare – Challenges for Nurses

In Finland, health and welfare is taken care under the common health and social services system that consists of independent private, public and third sector actors. Through taxation, municipalities finance most of the healthcare and the government provides additional support. Functionality and effectiveness of the overall system is vitally important to guarantee today’s good healthcare services. For instance, in social services and healthcare, digital health supports the quality of life, care, dignity and sovereignty. The necessary technology is equally, fairly and easily accessible due to the widespread technological infrastructure. For example, in healthcare, use of technology is agreed with the citizen when preparing the healthcare service plan. The documentation of patient data is carried out virtually at all levels of care. Technology offers options that can paradoxically mean both freedom and slavery depending on how and where technology is used, and who has the right to use it. Furthermore, the digital divide has narrowed, but it still exists. Due to the ageing of people, there is a growing need for healthcare staff who are digitally knowledgeable in order to support citizens and their families in health issues. When studying different digital health related strategies from 1995 to 2020, the vital role of healthcare staff is recognised and their technological competence and skills need to be updated along with the development of technology. During the last decade, in the latest strategies, the role of the citizen as a key part of the healthcare service chain has grown significantly.  Simultaneously, the development of a digital society offers possibilities to participate and the advanced digital expertise of citizens promotes their participation in healthcare. In principle, everyone has possibilities to access health data and gather health related data via Internet databases. This article discusses the elements of citizen or patient and nurse interactions, and how and whether this challenges nurses

Summary of The "Carrefour de la Télésanté" 2014 which took place at la Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie in PARIS on 16th and 17th October, 2014

The conference was organised by ISfTeH (International Society of Telemedicine and eHealth, which mission is to facilitate the international dissemination of knowledge and experience in Telemedicine and eHealth and providing access to recognized experts in the field worldwide) and CATEL (which is a French association created in October 1997). CATEL has become a network of more than 20 000 actors concerned by telemedicine e.g. practitioners, firms, associations, institutions, labs.This conference was 19th of ISfTeH and 5th Carrefour de la Télésanté conference.The conference had 450 participants gathered on the two days and 20 countries represented. During the presentations participants could ask questions or send comments via Twitter

Students as partners to organize an international conference. What did they learn?

In Finland higher education system consists of both theoretical universities and universities of applied sciences (UASs). Today students in higher education institutions are encouraged to find their way and teaching and learning occurs in different environments. A scientific conference provides prerequisites for high-quality, working-life based higher education experience as well as familiarizes with research, development and innovation practices. Furthermore, an international conference offers both new possibilities to disseminate one’s research and development work and to build international co-operation and new networks. The Finnish Society for Telemedicine and eHealth (FTeHS) works on voluntary basis and needs extra help in conference building. This offers a great opportunity to cooperation with students. The recruitment criteria for the students were e.g. prior experience in conferences or equivalent, and good English language skills. The master level students, five of them, were chosen in late autumn 2017 from the two Universities of Applied sciences. The article enlightens students’ experiences related to the preparatory and execution phases of the conference. The instructions are given what the conference work is. The article describes how students are planning, realizing and evaluating the conference in collaboration with conference organizations, and simultaneously having a fruitful and many-sided learning experience. The research data was collected via meeting notes made by the student in meeting’s secretary role, students’ learning reports, emailing messages and WhatsApp messages. Article focuses on student’s learning more than teaching

Predicting the Future of Healthcare and eHealth with the Futures Wheel Method

By using information and communication technology (ICT), eHealth is a key enabler in improving healthcare, specifically its efficiency, productivity, quality, and patient satisfaction. Whilst eHealth applies technical developments to healthcare services, it is also about managing, finding, using, recording, and transmitting information to support health-related decisions. Moreover, eHealth encompasses a broad approach and commitment to improving healthcare through networking and co-operation. Thus healthcare providers need to have sufficient tools to predict and involve the possible futures of healthcare, specifically in the context of continuous eHealth development, implementation and innovations. This paper introduces the Futures Wheel (FW) method, describes the process for its use and some of its outcomes as a tool by which to achieve these goals. Based on experiences from over 60 FW working groups, the authors suggest that the FW method helps to see the possible futures of healthcare and eases the necessary adaptation inherent in eHealth.  The FW method provides information and knowledge that professionals can utilise both to influence their future and to gain knowledge about alternative futures. The FW method is suggested for healthcare professionals who want to predict alternative futures of healthcare and eHealth in order to make important decisions that may have far-reaching consequences

Health Game project experiences

When we combined concepts of own motivation and addictivety of digital games, the Health ProPeli (Health ProGame) program was born! Aim of the program is to study the use of gaming technologies, digital- and physical innovations and gamification in health care, functional capacity and rehabilitation. Game mechanics could help people to get motivation for preventive healthcare, managing their own treatment and getting better results in general. The study is conducted on 6 different ’playfields’. Six different playfields have mapped user scenarios and operating conditions. Students have been in main role, while enterprises and experts are guiding work. Based on the different game concepts, demos and prototypes have been produced for different environments. Some of the demo versions have already been used in tests. The concept of playfields is proved to be promising environments enabling fast prototyping and testing and allowing patients, students and experts from different sectors to straightforward co-creation. More than one hundred students, fifty users and 20 experts from health care, design, technology and business sectors have been involved and participated. Along the development process four joint Game Jams were organized