Scaling up digital health for care continuity: key insights from the DHU Catalyst session at AHL-Napoli-2023
Digital Health Uptake was proud to be a co-organiser of the international conference AHL-Napoli-2023: Scaling up digital solutions for active and healthy living: implementing across scientific disciplines, industrial sectors, and scenarios.
Over three days on 13-15 November 2023, the event brought together representatives of policymakers, health providers, health professionals, academia, industry, and others.
DHU Catalyst Session
Digital Health Uptake organised a dedicated DHU Catalyst session on “Scaling up digital health for care continuity” which focused on scaling up digital health solutions to support prevention, risk assessment, early identification and management of chronic diseases, also facilitating care continuity and service integration.
Moderated by Marc Lange (EHTEL) and John Farrell (RSCN), the session explored how certain national, regional and local digitally enabled health programmes have successfully scaled up and delivered value to patients, health professionals, health systems and the innovator’s market.
About DHU Catalyst sessions
DHU offers complimentary workshops for digital health events, seamlessly integrated into the main program or as pre-event sessions in collaboration with the organisers. Our approach involves the exploration of topics from the perspectives of demand actors, innovators, and those making impactful interventions. Additionally, catalyst sessions facilitate dynamic discussions and actions among these essential actors, enhancing the overall event experience.
Scaling-up challenges, irrespective of borders
Invited speakers from Italy and Ethiopia outlined specific challenges which, while in two very different settings, share similar characteristics and can be tackled in a joint manner. The presentations were followed by a roundtable with further experts representing different viewpoints – clinical, service integration, labelling and certification, GP community, and measurement community.
Key services from DHU
In the final part of the session, the moderators were joined by Strahil Birov (EMPIRICA) to inform the audience about key services DHU offers to the wider stakeholder community:
- the DHU Radar,
- scaling up tools and methodologies,
- and twinnings for knowledge exchange.
Participants were encouraged to submit the different practices presented throughout the conference via the DHU radar repository.
In addition, a discussion around tools was held with the audience, with particular interest in tools to support the assessment of organisations’ maturity and readiness for implementing digital practices, such as the Scirocco model.
Beyond the session: DHU’s next steps
The DHU Catalyst session and the overall input collected in the conference will be discussed by the DHU project partners in order to identify further priority topics DHU should select for its work related to developing digests and guidance documents with stakeholder champions.
Key Takeaways
- Scaling for care continuity: Digital health solutions could have a crucial role in supporting prevention, risk assessment, and early management of chronic diseases.
- Shared challenges and solutions: Italy and Ethiopia’s experiences reveal common challenges in scaling solutions, advocating for a collaborative approach.
- DHU resources for stakeholders: DHU provides free essential resources—DHU Radar, scaling tools, and knowledge exchange twinnings—for stakeholders involved in the digital health landscape.
- DHU future priorities: Session discussions pinpointed key future priorities, guiding the development of DHU’s impactful digests and guidance documents with stakeholder input.