Researchers identified barriers to health innovation in the public sector

The needs assessment was carried out for the fourth consecutive year by the Digital Health Innovation Research Group – a network of over 20 researchers at the university.

– Quite often we are too quick to find solutions, but today we have an opportunity to dive deeper into the problems,” says Erik Wästlund, coordinator of the Arena Group within DigitalWell Arena and the Academy for Smart Specialisation.

Key barriers to development

From being barely on the agenda in the past, this year questions about how the technology can – and should – be used as a strategic resource dominated.

Around 30 participants described several structural and practical barriers that affect the ability to both develop and implement new digital services. Many centred on health data issues – ethics, legal, quality, and sharing – but several other areas of concern were raised:

• Mobile apps as a paradigm – do the benefits need to be questioned more clearly, both from an accessibility and procurement perspective?
• Resource imbalance – innovation efforts are not always matched by resources for implementation and follow-up.
• Gap between strategy and needs – risk that organisations’ objectives do not reflect the actual challenges of their activities.
• Monolithic IT environments – limiting the ability to benefit from AI.
• Skills challenges – difficulties in attracting and retaining the right skills in the public sector.

The positive expectation was mainly about the possibility of using AI in more preventive and health promotion activities.

– If we can cross-reference data, it can lead to new analyses that improve health promotion and prevention. This benefits both the individual, who stays healthy, and society, which saves costs. I also believe that it is about creating forecasts to put a value on and dare to invest in health promotion,” says Anna Sandberg, public health strategist at Region Värmland.

The day also provided insights into current research collaborations – including how Computer Science is supporting four Värmland municipalities in exploring how AI can contribute to earlier support efforts for children and young people. (Read more about the Child and Youth Journey project here)

Creating a platform for new collaborations

On 14-15 April, work will continue as the Arena Group brings together its partners to deepen the analysis and outline possible solutions.

– The most important thing about the needs inventory is that it gives us the opportunity to get to know each other – and the challenges and needs of each other’s organisations. This makes it much easier to do things together. These dialogues give us a genuine picture of the problems and a concrete basis to start from,” says Erik Wästlund.