Digital Vision: New approach to implementing technology

Digital Vision is a three-year (2019-2021) innovation and research project which will pave the way for a systematic approach to digitisation and implementation of innovative technology in OUH's departments and thus prepare them for New OUH.

Digital Vision turns the approach to innovation and digitisation projects on its head and allows an entire hospital department to undergo a comprehensive digital transformation, rather than the normal trickle-down approach that starts with a single patient group or a specific technology at a time.

INNOVATION LABORATORY IN THE CLINICAL DAY-TO-DAY

The selected department is the Department for Gastroenterology, which is a special department with both a bed ward, an endoscopy section, outpatient clinics and a research unit. The approximately 150 employees in the department see approximately 65 patients per day in the nursing outpatient clinic, 80 patients in the medical outpatient clinic and has around 50 patients through the endoscopy section daily. In addition, the department has 21 beds for hospitalised patients. The department treats medical diseases of the gastrointestinal tract and the liver, e.g. oesophageal catarrh, peptic ulcer, intestinal inflammation, complications of cirrhosis, liver inflammation and inflammation of the pancreas. The department sees patients in need of highly specialised treatment from the entire Region of Southern Denmark.

In addition to operational treatment, the department is home to the elite research centre FLASH, which focuses on liver diseases. FLASH researches new diagnostic methods and connections between liver damage and diet, intestinal flora, alcohol, diabetes and obesity. The goal of the research is in the future to be able to offer patients with fatty liver a more effective treatment and improve the chances of survival.

In recent years, the department has experienced an increasing number of patients - especially with liver diseases, intestinal failure and a number of special cancers. A significant number of new examinations and forms of treatment have been put into use, and therefore liver diseases are detected earlier than before and have new treatment options.

"It is really good for OUH that a department has been chosen for the project, which covers a wide range of patient groups and types, and where you have many clinical functions. In terms of the many functions, there are also extra logistics, which require good digital tools and good communication for both patients and staff, and those experiences will benefit the entire OUH and New OUH", says contact director for the department Michael Dall.

Therefore, the department was the right candidate for the ambitious project Digital Vision.

"Dept. of Gastroenterology is proud to be selected as the project department for Digital Vision. When we heard about the project, we immediately offered to take on the task, as we see great opportunities in being part of such a ground-breaking project", say the department's head nurse Louise Vestring and senior physician Karsten Lauritsen.

"Like all other departments, we are used to having new digital solutions rolled out in generic implementation strategies, which can sometimes be a challenge in a busy everyday life. The digital solutions are good, but without a department-specific implementation strategy and the full support for in-depth implementation, we unfortunately find that the systems occasionally do not come into their own at all, and in the worst case, become a bigger hindrance for the staff rather than help it is intended as.

We want to put our patients first, and in order to do this as best as possible, we must help our staff to be able to get help from digitisation, so that they can free up time for the core task, namely care and treatment of the department's patients".

ABOUT PROJECT DIGITAL VISION

Digital Vision implements IT systems and innovation solutions together in one department to achieve the full effect of coherent digitisation. The project is the first of its kind in Denmark – perhaps even the whole of Europe.

"If we are to have real impact from our innovation solutions, it is necessary to include and optimise the context. Isolated innovation is exciting in itself and can easily provide value for both patients, relatives and staff. But the context must be included and optimised, as in Digital Vision, if we are to revolutionise the way we operate healthcare. All indications are that it is the latter that is needed. We are testing that method in Digital Vision", says Head of Innovation at OUH, Tessa Lind Gjødesen.

The structure of the project ensures full department-specific digitisation by starting from a comprehensive analysis of the department's current use of IT systems, which identifies areas where there is a need to adapt workflows and functions (spring 2019). Relevant IT systems are then implemented, which are used elsewhere at OUH and which can improve the department's workflows and patient communication based on experiences from others. Last but not least, an innovation process will carry the project all the way to the finish line. In this phase, "gaps" are identified, where there is further potential for digitisation and automation, but where there is no suitable technology already in operation at OUH. Therefore, new systems or technologies must be developed and/or found, which can be tested and finally implemented in the department in conjunction with the other digital systems. The individual activities are continuously evaluated, and at the end of the overall evaluation of the project.

In this way, Digital Vision will pave the way to New OUH, where digitisation is a key word, and create the best basis for the use of technological solutions for the benefit of patients and staff at OUH.

“Innovation in healthcare is not going fast enough. We see innovation as a discipline where new opportunities and methods are implemented more quickly, in step with life outside the healthcare system. This applies, for example, to the use of mobile technology, where the clinical staff, at the same time as the necessary monitoring and documentation, can be in direct contact with the patients and their relatives. That is why we have chosen Digital Vision as a strategic work tool as a model for the rest of OUH and the healthcare system in general", says Peder Jest, director and chairman of the innovation council at OUH.

THE FIRST RESULTS

Since the start of the project in January, the focus has been on the department's use of known IT systems and uncovering potential for the implementation of new solutions. If existing systems cause problems, employees are not receptive to new activities, which is why there has been a focus on improving the use of the electronic patient record Cosmic through side-by-side coaching and special training from Clinical IT.

This first phase also made it clear that a major barrier to digital workflows is a lack of mobile phones for employees. In addition, many employees feel that mobile phones are "looked upon negatively" by patients and give the impression that they are preoccupied with private matters rather than work tasks. Therefore, Digital Vision has designed special covers for mobile phones, which clearly signal that it is a work tool.

In October, the department will therefore receive mobile phones equipped with the new covers when they need to use mobile digital workflows, e.g. for use of the Cetrea system for managing patient flow and tasks.