Digital Vision 3

ARMS4elderly is a cross-sectoral EU project that aims to investigate how (re)admissions among the elderly can be prevented or avoided. This is done by developing and testing closer cooperation between the sectors supported by relevant telemedicine solutions.

The Danish trial of ARMS4elderly is taking place in collaboration between the Department of Geriatric Medicine, Odense and Nordfunens Municipality. Here, the initiative is called VOGT. Patients who have been discharged to Nordfunens Municipality since May 2025 have been offered this supplementary follow-up. Here, their most recently measured vital parametres from the Department of Geriatric Medicine are sent to the municipality to ensure reference values, and the municipality follows the citizens more closely and systematically. A few days after discharge, a virtual meeting is held between the citizen, any relatives, municipal nurse, and a doctor or nurse from the Department of Geriatric Medicine, where they discuss the status based on new objective measurements including a CRP and ensure that things continue to go in the right direction. Any further follow-up is then agreed.

The inclusion of patients in the project itself was completed in January 2026, but the effort now continues in operation for those patients/citizens where the hospital or municipality deems there is a need.

Read more about the project here.

Safe Space is a project that aims to ensure closer cooperation and greater knowledge exchange between the GP and the hospital during an admission with a view to better discharges and progression for patients. Specifically, in the spring of 2026, we will test sending a correspondence to the GP when a patient is transferred from the Emergency Department to the Department of Geriatric Medicine with a request for any relevant supplementary information. In particular, patients who are admitted via 112 or the doctor on call may have some history that would otherwise not be known, because it is only in the GP's medical record, and the patient is not always able to explain it themselves.

The PHA (Pre-Hospital Assessment) car is dispatched to where the emergency centre assesses that the call may be able to be handled without hospitalisation. The car is manned by a paramedic and is equipped with approximately the same equipment as an ambulance, but cannot transport patients to the hospital. 

The function was established about two years ago as an experiment and originally intended as a supplement to the Emergency Department ambulance that is currently deployed. Today, this function is largely covered by the municipal emergency team, and the PHA car's tasks have therefore become broader, but also less clearly defined. It runs every day from 7 am to 7 pm. 

The paramedic spars with a doctor from either the emergency centre (weekdays 8 am to 4 pm) or the Emergency Department (from 4 pm to 7 pm plus weekends), if the patient needs to be discharged from their own home. Here, it was tested whether video can function as a relevant tool to supplement the previous telephone conversations, by using it consistently in the conversations for a month and then evaluating it.

It was concluded that video is a good supplement to the general toolbox that can support good processes for those patients who require something more or something else from the conversation between paramedic and doctor.

The technique generally works well, but it is more time-consuming than a telephone conversation, and attention must be paid to both aligning expectations as to why it should be video, and to practical matters in relation to, for example, background noise, camera placement, and so on.

The collaboration between the medical officers in the emergency centre and PHA/ambulances continues as before, but now with greater familiarity with using video, so that it can be used when it is considered clinically relevant.

At the new OUH, all patient rooms will be equipped with an individual screen designed for the patients' needs. On the screen, you can stream, play games and invite your relatives to participate on video during ward visits. In this project, we will develop the function "Know Your Course", where patients will be able to see who their doctor and nurse are, their address (e.g. Room 3, East, Emergency Department) and what activities they can expect in the coming hours (e.g. ward visits, blood tests or similar). Data will come from the logistics system Cetrea and the function will be developed in the Emergency Department, but should be able to function throughout OUH. The project is being carried out in close collaboration with Getinge and Powernet.