Technolological Innovations in Long-Term Care: “Future of Care” Cluster enters the next round
To improve long-term care using digital solutions while at the same time reducing the workload for carers – that is the aim of the research cluster “Future of Care”, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The main focus of the second funding phase, which has now commenced, is the transfer of new technologies into practice. An important building block for this is the Nursing Care Innovation Center (Pflegeinnovationszentrum, or PIZ) in Oldenburg and Bremen.
Today, long-term care in Germany is confronted with immense challenges, including a rapidly growing number of people in need of care and a glaring shortage of qualified carers. At the same time, care interventions are becoming increasingly complex. In order to tackle these issues, the Ministry of Education and Research is supporting the development and probing of new care technologies.
Since 2017, the “Future of Care” cluster has synergized social and technological innovations; researchers, businesses and stakeholders in the field co-operated with users and worked on developing new products to facilitate and improve routine long-term care work in Germany. As a first measure, the Care Cluster commenced its operations in 2017 at the Nursing Care Innovation Center – a hitherto unique institution in Germany. Here, engineers from OFFIS in Oldenburg explore new technologies in collaboration with nursing-care researchers (headed by Prof. Dr. Karin Wolf-Ostermann, Institute for Public Health and Nursing Research), and long-term care economists (headed by Prof. Dr. Heinz Rothgang, SOCIUM Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy) at the University of Bremen. Ethical, social and legal aspects are also a key factor in this context, and are investigated at the University of Oldenburg.
After the successful first phase, the research work is now entering phase two, which entails the development of an “innovation and transfer hub”. While in the first phase the focus lay on the development and trial of new technologies, the second phase comprises the transfer and establishment of these technologies into broad practice. They include, for example, robotic systems to reduce fatigue in carers caused by physically demanding work, or technologies to support telecare provision, e.g. assessing a person’s health status using sensor technology.
The University of Bremen contributes with the participation of comprehensive expertise in nursing and care research, long-term care economics and healthcare research, with a particular focus on digital care technologies. “Technological innovations can take the load off routine carework, but they must be implemented sensibly in practical care provision and integrated into the work of carers,” says Professor Dr. Karin Wolf-Ostermann. The Bremen scientists analyse for instance the requirements for technological support in various inpatient and outpatient care situations, explore how technological innovations such as smart watches and other “wearables” can be integrated into everyday care, and address issues relating to the evaluation of technology deployment. “With our experience, our high profile research areas and our networks we can mediate between the requirements and demands in practical care, the interests of developers, and science,” Prof. Dr. Heinz Rothgang explains.
Taken together, the “Future of Care” cluster will be funded to the tune of around 20 million euros in the coming five years. Apart from PIZ, four so-called nursing practice centres (Pflegepraxiszentren, or PPZ) in Berlin, Freiburg, Hanover and Nuremberg will play a major role in the implementation and evaluation of technologies and products.
