Digital Health Days 2023
Forhelse was well represented at Digital Health Days in 2023 as well. This year, the conference highlighted how we can digitise in ways that provide good health services, that relieve personnel, and that be inclusive without excluding. The conference promoted the perspectives of inhabitants, and explored what municipalities, hospitals, research, education and business can achieve together. We at Forhelse were one of several operators who contributed several presentations to shed light on these important topics.
Seen through the eyes of the inhabitants – good services for and with users
In the section “Seen through the eyes of the inhabitants – good services for and with the users”, our project manager for UngMeistring, Kristin Hogstad Bruvik, talked about how we can better involve young people in research and development. She talked about how the Pilot Health Project, consisting of a number of partners from different sectors, uses the Person-Based-Approach to create a common language between health, nutrition, research and other public actors. When we include adolescents with diagnoses, we must be particularly cautious and adhere to research ethics guidelines, data protection and health legislation.
At the end of this section, our user representative, Stine Hope Spjeld, summarised the topic from the viewpoint of the Inhabitants. She shared her experiences working as a user representative in Forhelse, and good methods to promote the power of user voice. Stine emphasised the importance of real user involvement and that – regardless of the method chosen for user participation – the user should have both the opportunity and access to influence, change and develop. Users must be involved in the projects at an early stage so that their voices can and will be heard. The users’ perspectives must be taken seriously, and we must continue to do what works well within user involvement today.
Research conference: Development, evaluation and use of digital health services
The first entry in the section “Research Conference: Development, evaluation and use of digital health services” came from our PhD candidate Maren Storetvedt. She presented the preliminary work in her PhD project: Young ADHD – a Digital Mastery Programme: A Qualitative Study Focusing on the Wants and Needs of Young People. When the first round of data gathering was completed, Maren will continue to analyse the 16 qualitative interviews conducted with adolescents between the ages of 13-16 diagnosed with ADHD. The insights from this study will be actively used in developing a digital coping programme for adolescents with ADHD. In the project, they believe that the insight from the young people will contribute to the programme being perceived as relevant and applicable. Storetvedt said that it was useful to present the project at the conference, both to train in research dissemination and to get input and ideas for the ongoing work
In part 2 of the Research Conference, Beate Standal presented her preliminary findings from the first study in her PhD project. Beate has interviewed staff at clinics that offer guided web-based therapy to look at barriers when it comes to implementing guided web-based therapy. The analysis of the interviews identified three key areas. The first and foremost was Patient Choice, which is linked to the perception that the patient should be able to choose their own approach to therapy. The second was Appropriate Patients, which is about the belief that some patients are better suited for guided web-based therapy than others. The third area, Table Setting, refers to the contextual factors that influence implementation, such as finances, working conditions, legal agreements etc. The study shows that understanding the elements that influence the implementation of guided web-based therapy must also address how the patient is constructed together with the other contextual factors.
Several of our partners made good contributions both as speakers and from their stands, such as the Municipality of Bergen, YouWell and DigiUng. We at Forhelse are proud of our employees and what we achieve together with all our fantastic partners. We look forward to continuing our efforts to increase access to safe and knowledge-based health services through the use of digital technology and are already looking forward to next year’s conference.