Guest blog Fundis: 'The future is now: dynamics in innovations for elderly care'

To continue to facilitate the society in which we all age well, many changes still need to be made. The pressure on healthcare is enormous and will only increase in the coming years. This is old news for people in the (elderly) care sector. Fortunately, it is also becoming more and more apparent to people outside of the industry. This is a good development, because we can only meet the challenges of care together.

By Patricia de Koning - Dirksen, Communication and Innovation Manager and Program Manager Care for Tomorrow at Fundis.

The problems that (elderly) care is facing are those of the entire society. From Fundis, we therefore involve a broad group in finding solutions. Fundis is a network of about twenty care and welfare organizations active in the field of (vulnerable) elderly people. Although the organizations within the network operate autonomously, they work together when there are overarching issues. An important part of this is the continuous involvement of the almost 5,000 employees within the Fundis network and where possible, also beyond.

Care for tomorrow

The challenges of elderly care have been on Fundis' policy agenda for some time now and since 2019, they have been working hard on possible solutions together. We believe that we can influence the care of the future in six areas, which we call the Fundis Expedition, and translate these strategic pillars into an internal Care for Tomorrow campaign.

The 'Day of Care for Tomorrow' is an example of an initiative where many things come together. The day originated after an internal event in 2019, where over 2,000 healthcare colleagues came together to talk about the future of care and to be inspired in the areas of technology and care innovation, among others. The event was the starting point of the internal Care for Tomorrow campaign, which takes employees along in the six solution directions. In addition to Tech and Data as directions, The Right Care in the Right Place is a major theme. Regional collaborations such as Zoetermeer 2025 and Shared Care in Midden-Holland ensure that we can work more efficiently as a chain, including general practitioners, hospitals, and district nursing, and learn from each other how we can provide and keep care available where necessary.

From pilot to implementation

We pay attention to innovation and driving it forward in various ways. For example, there is a Fundis Innovation Group in which (healthcare) employees from the various organizations participate. This group comes together as a whole and smaller teams think about innovation opportunities. With these teams, we identify problems from the work floor and translate them into concrete pilots.

Starting with a problem from the work field is incredibly important

Starting with a problem from the work field is incredibly important in our view. Within the Fundis Innovation Group, for example, the question arose from the connected employees in the recovery and rehabilitation care sector how we can better guide people with a CVA (stroke) in their rehabilitation process and whether technology can help with that. Subsequently, the same employees conducted a small study on the work floor, wrote a plan of action, and gave a presentation to the management about the expected results and the necessary investment for the pilot. The answer was found in a tele-rehabilitation solution that is now being rolled out to several locations after a successful pilot period.

From pilot to implementation is not an easy process. Often, several factors are important that are not always clear at the start of the pilot, as we noticed, such as funding streams and costs. Our experience is that it helps to establish the question well at the start of the project and to keep the goal in mind during the project. Trying a lot, but also accepting that not everything turns out to be feasible, contributes to ultimate successes.

Innovation is the act of trying (and learning)

This is something that may feel counterintuitive to our industry, as we are often focused on efficiency and documenting procedures in predetermined protocols. This leaves little room for experimentation. However, it has become clear during the pandemic that our healthcare system needs (and will have to undergo) change. As is often the case before major changes, we do not yet see all the solutions. Ten years ago, few people predicted that we would be able to pay with our phones, something that is now considered normal. The same will be true for healthcare. I therefore expect changes in healthcare that we cannot yet imagine but that will be considered normal in a few years. Until then, we must try as much as possible to innovate and learn.

There is no one solution to the challenges of the future of elderly care, but there are multiple possible solutions. We must continue to explore these together and act on them. The use of technological innovations is certainly a part of this, as long as the solution aligns with a real need in practice and is able to adapt to the dynamic nature of healthcare. Because that dynamism exists: healthcare is in motion and the future has already begun.

This blog was written within the theme of "Healthy Aging" of the ZorgTech innovation program. Read also the earlier guest blogs within this theme by Mijke Buijs, Program Manager for Sustainable Coalitions at health insurer CZ, and by Dr. Ton Bakker, professor of "Function Preservation in the Elderly from a Life Course Perspective" at Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences and one of the consortium leaders of Medical Delta Living Lab Geriatric Rehabilitation@Home.