PrimCareIT

Report on the transnational focus group and the strategic workshop - Abstract

This report on the transnational focus group and the strategic workshop is part of the theoretical background of the PrimCareIT project. The aim of the transnational focus group and the strategic workshop is to further elaborate on the topics of PrimCareIT in a transnational background.

The focus group consisted of one expert from each partner country being concerned with the introduction of tele-mentoring and tele-consultation in the partner countries, while the strategic workshop was carried out with participants from the pilot regions as well as different decision makers and institution representatives experienced in strategy development in health care from the different countries.

The findings from the focus group were analysed according to the topics of the PrimCareIT project and compared with the findings from the literature review (PrimCareIT-Output 3.1) and the expert interviews (PrimCareIT-Output 3.2) that had been done by the PrimCareIT partners preceding the latest activities.

The main findings from the focus group include that there are different challenges that should be faced when implementing tele-consultation and tele-mentoring solutions. But the focus group participants also named lots of recommendations for successfully implementing such solutions in the daily routines in practices and health centres. Those include for example well working remuneration systems in those countries, where health care is not publicly driven, such as Germany, or patient centred incentives in the systems with mainly public health care providers, such as Finland or Sweden. The recommendation also focussed a lot on technical aspects, such as an easy usability and IT trainings for the health care professionals, but also organisational issues were raised, with the recommendation of implementing a tele-consultation hour or using tele-consultation and tele-mentoring in an asynchronous way.

In the strategic meeting the focus lay more on strategy development and the major findings include that the disputants recommended to focus on recent health care developments and the difference of the various health care systems. It was also suggested to highlight the benefit for the users, the health care system in total and the decision makers as well as the positive outcomes for the patient as being a rather relevant factor for decisions in health care.

The findings from the focus group and the strategic meeting builds together with the results of the preceding expert interviews and literature review as well as findings from the pilot regions the basis for a transnational strategy paper that is developed for the discussion with politicians and decision makers on the implementation of tele-mentoring and tele-consultation to counteract brain drain and professional isolation of health professionals from remote regions.

The target groups of this output are all project partners from work packages and the general public interested in the project as well as politicians and other stakeholders.

The partners of WP3 have been involved in elaboration of the present output.

For more information, contact Prof Bosco Lehr, Flensburg University of Applied Sciences, Germany.

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