Special Topic | Barcamp Health Innovation 2024 – Patient Journey: A hub to discuss, exchange views and network – the Barcamp Health Innovation raises important issues regarding the patient journey

Going through medical treatment is often similar to a long journey. The term “patient journey” refers to all the stages along this path – prevention, the emergence of the first symptoms of a disease, recovery, the ongoing management of a chronic disease or palliative therapy. It puts patients at the center of attention and raises the issue of how care can be designed for them in the best possible way. This year’s Barcamp Health Innovation focused on the patient journey. A great variety of participants from the sectors industry, science and medical care shed light on this journey from different perspectives.
Barcamp Health Innovation July 10th 2024

 

For patients, the way from the detection of initial symptoms of a disease to the completion of treatment can be long and arduous, especially if they are suffering from a complex or chronic disease. The term “patient journey” is used to describe this path. The patient journey encompasses the stages of measures taken to prevent potential diseases, the formal initiation of treatment, the taking of the patients’ medical history, diagnosis as well as the selection, planning and implementation of a suitable treatment. In the case of severe diseases, it may also include outpatient treatment prior to hospital admission, inpatient treatment and, if necessary, outpatient treatment after discharge from hospital. 


Recognizing and eliminating deficits 

The term patient journey is not only employed to render the entire process of treatment more tangible. It is primarily intended to enable a patient-focused analysis of care, because such an analysis, independent of the other stakeholders and sectors involved, may contribute to the identification of discrepancies and optimization potentials in the quality of care. 

Accordingly, there are many challenges in designing the patient journey. One central aspect is the timely provision of the necessary data, to improve the efficiency of processes and thus offer the best possible care. Some further aspects in designing an optimal patient journey are collaboration across sectors, the potential use of wearables in the prevention and monitoring of diseases and the improvement of hospital admission and discharge management. 

For Berlin-based hospital operator and provider of care services Vivantes - Netzwerk für Gesundheit, for example, the patient journey is a decisive factor in designing clinical infrastructure. “Vivantes develops and projects a cross-location and cross-disciplinary patient flow and performance management system to increase the quality of care and patient experience by optimizing digital care and treatment documentation, service requests and the coordination of cross-location resources,” states Jens Klaubert, one of the heads of patient flow management and operational organization at Vivantes. “The core of this setup is a broad approach to central coordination, based on partially or fully automatized decision support systems. This enables a combination of clinical and operative patient flow data and, creating a holistic picture through a structured visualization and networking of all data sources in real time, enhances the provision of high-quality care.” 


Guidance on every journey through the health system 

For many medical care institutions, the design of the patient journey is now an important factor in strategic and operative decision-making. This also means that new medical (technology) solutions must be adapted to the patient journey through the healthcare sector. At the same time, these solutions also exert an influence on that patient journey, especially in the context of increasing digitalization. 

Solutions that accompany people through the complex health system at every step of the way are an important topic for health insurers as well. “The health system is highly complex. Faced with a wealth of information, orientation is not always easy for insured persons. We at TK regard ourselves as partners and guides through the healthcare system. We accompany our customers from their birth into old age, for example by providing our electronic patient record TK Safe or the app TK-BabyZeit. Our target is the best possible health for all,” states Susanne Hertz, Head of the Regional Representation Berlin/Brandenburg of German health insurer TK. 


Barcamp Health Innovation focuses on the patient journey 

There being more than enough reasons to dedicate an event to the patient journey, this year’s Barcamp Health Innovation on 10 July focused on the topic. It was the 13th annual edition of the barcamp, and for the first time the range of topics also included innovations beyond the scope of digital health. Event partners of this year’s barcamp were ORACLE Deutschland B.V. & Co. KG (Oracle Cerner), health insurer Techniker Krankenkasse (TK) and Bayer AG. The event took place in Oracle Cerner’s prestigious premises at Berlin’s central station. 

The barcamp’s proceedings followed familiar principles. The key question “How do we facilitate the patient journey through our health system?” invited participants to pitch topics and ideas for solutions. Afterwards, these were discussed by stakeholders from the sectors industry, care, research and health insurance in nine topical sessions. The thematic scope of these sessions included a broad range of topics, such as innovative solutions for patients suffering from anxiety disorders, new approaches to the promotion of women’s health and discussions on the improvement of the patient journey through the European Health Data Space (EHDS). 


Diverse perspectives on the patient journey 

Because the barcamp’s participants came from a wide range of different backgrounds, it transpired how diverse perspectives on the patient journey through the health system are. It also became clear that many of the participating stakeholders are already developing their digital solutions along the patient journey, event partner Oracle Cerner being one of them. 

„We enjoyed contributing our perspective as an impulse at the 13th barcamp. For Oracle Cerner, an open, interoperable health platform is key to the future of sustainable health care. Health care has to center on people. Networked technologies and unified data make it possible to accelerate innovation and deliver better results for better decisions,” said Leonie Meroth, Senior Product Regulatory Strategist, and Olaf Dörge, Director Business Development and Portfolio Management at the conclusion of the Barcamp Health Innovation. 

Berlin-based company Doctolib is also developing its solutions along the patient journey, aiming to facilitate access to care and simplify health organization for patients. In order to realize this, the software provider also takes the management of the patient’s relatives into account. Julia Fritz, Senior Manager Public Affairs & Advocacy at Doctolib, participated in the Barcamp Health Innovation. “On the one hand, I found it really exciting to see once again how many perspectives there can be on a patient journey. On the other hand, we got a concrete idea for collaboration through the exchange with other participants and we are currently pursuing this,” she stated. 

Alongside the significance of the patient journey for IT solutions, another major focus at the barcamp was the promotion of mental health. Several companies were committed to this topic. Klenico Health GmbH pitched the topic “New perspectives on mental health care – new care pathways for mental health.” The outcome of discussions: We need individual, patient-centered approaches for high- quality mental health care. 

In this context, the perspective of friends and relatives plays an important role – an argument BIOLAB Innovation GmbH contributed to a brainstorming session with other participants, in which they jointly explored the question of who has which needs in this context, and which solutions could provide support in which ways. The solution approaches mostly focused on improving communication between all persons involved in the patient journey. It transpired that empathy is a crucial factor here, which should also be considered in digital solution approaches. 

In conclusion, the Barcamp Health Innovation provided suggestions for new solution approaches and collaborations in the context of improving the patient journey. Cluster HealthCapital will gladly support the players with its services in taking the next big step: implementing these solution approaches and making them available to the health care sector. 

 

Related links: 

  • LinkedIn post by the project manager in the area of patient flow management at Vivantes

 



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