LLDN Health
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See generic description of Thematic Domain Networks
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[edit] Openness
The Health and Well-Being thematic domain network is open to the organisations and individuals that are active or have an interest in this domain. Depending on the maturity of the Living Lab with regard to their activities in the domain a core group of senior Living Labs will have a lead position in the network. They will interact closer with each other on the different topics and activities. They will also act as a reference group to the other members of the Living Lab. They will share their knowledge and expertise to assist the other Living Labs in improving their Living Lab activities and set-up in the domain. A set of senior Living Labs will also act as the steering group of the domain network. They will be responsible for drafting the program, defining the topics to be addressed… The members of the steering group will be rotating, meaning that each year the composition can change. Preferable, the chairperson of this steering group is the responsible within ENoLL for the domain of Health, as elected by the council members.
[edit] Scope
The health domain, understood in its broadest terms, is one of the most significant economic and social fields of activity in developed nations. A broad and inclusive approach to the concept of Health, and well-being offers more opportunities for creative ideas and synergies with related fields. Due to the growing aging population and the rapid increase of health care costs, different types of innovations, including systemic, social and managerial innovations are fundamental and urgent for the aging European society. That is to say, innovations related to the health and social sector are urgent, however they are not sufficient, and hence, we need broader systemic innovations, penetrating various societal and knowledge sectors. There resides a need for new type of systemic and managerial innovations, based on crowdsourcing and open innovation. The main goal is to collectively achieve rapid solutions to given questions and challenges, e.g. the promotion of wellbeing, social networks models and community care, democracy and financial system in collaboration among citizens, administration and private sector. Active Ageing, Integrated Care and Independent Living are seen as one of the key elements in addressing these challenges. A core element in these concepts is the need to support people to live as long and as healthy as possible independently at home or in their preferred environment, assisted by technology, innovative services and processes and new business models. The focus should be on solutions that are not perceived as stigmatising through co-creation methodologies with future users. Living Labs in health & wellbeing can make the difference as they stimulate user-driven innovations and open-innovation collaboration in order to empower the elderly and to enable independent living. This will be a strategic principle within the overall thematic domain of Health and Well-being. Therefore the thematic network of Living Labs in the domain of Health & Well-being will initially focus on the elements that are related to the domains of (e)homecare, ambient assisted living and telehealth.. The scope of the network of Living Labs is dual. On the one hand the network wants to assemble all those Living Labs that have done projects and have an active interest in the domain. Within this larger group of Living Labs a more core-group of Living Labs will operate. This group will act as a reference group that will interact more closely with each other. It is within this interaction that they will exchange lessons learned and experiences not only to each other, but also to larger community of Living Labs that are member of this thematic network. This core group is necessary to create a solid base, knowledge pool and trustworthy network of Living Labs that have the expertise and ability to set-up cross-border projects and to assist SMEs and large companies in large scale pilots. Important in this selection is the use of a common eco-system approach (see further). This core group will also set the benchmark for the other living labs. In the end the objective is that due to these core groups and their experience the other Living labs can evolve to a more mature, focused and specialized living lab in the domain.
[edit] challenges
Both the establishment as the operation of a network of Living Labs in the domain of Health and Well-Being are confronted with a number of specific challenges. We encounter the following:
- Difference in the eco-system: the Health context is organised very differently in each region / country. This implies that the Living labs are confronted with other type of partners, stakeholders, business models… The establishment of similar set-ups in each living labs is therefore not feasible. However, the network has to offer not only insights in how the local Health and Well-Being is organised, but also a gateway to get access to the different stakeholders that are necessary to set-up collaborative living lab projects. In addition, as health is often (semi-public organised it is different for a new actor (SME) to enter the specific market (based on the public, subsidized model). New ways of enabling experiments, outside a complete commercial oriented (B-2-C) business model are also needed.
- Different rules and regulation: the domain of health is subject to a very complex set of rules and regulations. This does not only differ from country to country but even within countries. Therefore performing projects in this domain does not only require a thorough insight in these aspects but also implies that often specific procedures need to be followed. This offers also a bottleneck in the feasibility for cross-border pilots. Setting up mirror projects or simply transferring one set-up from one context to the other is only possible if it is assessed and adjusted to these local rules.
- Access to a vulnerable target group: When performing projects in the domain of Health or Well-Being one is confronted with vulnerable target groups such as elderly, sick and or disabled people. These groups can not be accessed in the same way that the majority of test-users or participants are reached and involved. Also often this group is difficult to be reached as they protect themselves from society. To access this vulnerable groups you need to have a.o. specific methods, dedicated ‘entry-points’,…. These are often trusted parties. The living labs operating in a network and setting up cross-border projects will have to provide these type of ‘entry-points’.
- Local ‘visibility’ / presence: Trust is a crucial element in the set-up of projects in Health and Well-being. Therefore trusted parties are a key element (see also above). To facilitate this trust local presence is a necessity. This means that the Living Labs have to act as a trusted partiy towards the different actors in the eco-system. Those partners can act as a gateway to the end-users
- Benchmarking: Finally, projects in Health and Well-Being also are confronted with a specific challenge regarding benchmarking. Measuring the value and impact within Health and Well-Being are also not always on a pure economical level. The societal impact is mostly as equal important. To prove whether a system has impact it is not sufficient to perform eg. an evaluation questionnaire. To grasp the real value of an experiment it is not only crucial to have access to a good benchmark, but also to create the correct research environment and offer the right instruments.
[edit] Objectives
The objectives of a community of Living Labs operating in a network within the domain of Health and Homecare are in general threefold. First it has to be an environment in which the various partners can share lessons learned experiences… Second, referring to this core circle, it also has to be an active community that helps the Living lab members with useful methods and tools. Finally the community should also be ‘collaborative’ meaning that between the different stakeholders there is interaction in terms of collaboration by setting up joined projects etc... We will elaborate more on these levels. 1. A sharing community
- As mentioned before – the network of Living Labs in Health would consist of two layers: a core layer and a larger community. In the first place it is the objective to establish the exchange of knowledge and experiences with regard to Living Labs in the Health and Well-being domain both within and between these layers and Living Labs. Here a specific focus will have to be on operational issues encountered during Living Lab projects and how they were handled successfully.
- The network also has to network with Living Labs active in other domains. The chairman of the network will have to play an active role in facilitating this.
- Within this knowledge sharing, there has to be a specific focus on identifying proven methods to get Living Labs involved in collaboration with health, well-being service providers. This has not only to be facilitated in an electronic way (knowledge-center, newsletters…) but also has to be the scope of the workshops and specific events.
- Beyond the own community, the network also has to act as an ambassador of the Living Lab movement. They will have to promote the Living Labs as a useful and attractive tool for innovation and service development for Health & Well-Being related projects and initiatives..
B. An active community
- First, the network of Living Labs, need to address specific needs of the community with regard to user driven innovation in the domain. These issues (eg. in-house access at vulnerable groups) are than subject of the various activities of the Living Lab (workshops, taskforces…). For this a programme has to be drafted by the steering group in which the focus of the network is decided. This programme has a timeline for one year and will frame the scope for tackling specific identified needs.
- Subsequently, based on this need-identification, the network of Living Labs will have to create different taskforces that focuses on the development of specific Living Lab tools, methods and techniques specifically targeting the challenges of the domain of Health and Well-Being. For example on capturing user feedback from elderly people.
- Thirdly, an important objective for the network is to collaborate & connect with the various stakeholders in the domain. The Health and Well-being domain is in that sense a very specific domain as this is in essence a very closed community, with a very specific eco-system. Therefore the network has to provide the access – both in the different regions and sectors – for the members of the Living Lab network to the local eco-systems.
C. A collaborative community Finally the network of Living Labs in Health has to be a collaborative community. They will have to work together to join forces and by so offer a large platform that can leverage innovation projects and by so addressing some of the main challenges in the domain. This will not only imply that there will be an active cross-border and inter-Living Lab collaboration, but that the members of the network also will set up joined projects. These projects can range from data-exchange for bottom-up innovation to real Living Lab projects over different regions. The network has to enable an easy access to the various Health eco-systems all over Europe. By so, stakeholders, public and private partners, are able to set-up large-scale, comparative cross-border projects. Next, the role of the network here is also in identifying local needs (by users, stakeholders…) and from a bottom up perspective defines new projects and assembles the right partners for doing so. The latter element acts also as a matchmaker between SMEs, health services and public organisations. Often one is in search of a solution of a certain need. It is the task of the network to guide these actors – by pointing them to results of previous partners, bringing them in contact with service providers
[edit] Resources
Creating an overview with available resources in the domain network of health and well-being is extremely difficult. Not only are the different Living Labs often project based organised and by so the used technologies… from a temporary nature, but also there is a permanent evolution in the domain. Also the setting and involved eco-system is mostly too project specific. This implies that these settings and collaborations are not often ‘re-usable’ for other type of projects. Due to this and the changing nature of the projects and sector, we do think it is more useful to list the various expertises of the members of the Living Lab. The knowledge center will be the primary channel through which members can describe their expertise and track record. The domain network will use a template covering all the different elements of information that Living Labs have to provide. During the workshops and showcases the Living Labs will also have the opportunity to illustrate their assets. It will be the responsible of the domain network to assure that every member is up-to-date with the latest status of each of the Living Labs active in the field. The newsletter will be one of the main instruments to do so.
Download Domain Living Lab Network Charters extract
 | Future Care Lab at Humtec, Aachen is an interdisciplinary project house at RWTH Aachen University. HumTec aims at fostering high level interdisciplinary research between the humanities/social sciences and the engineering/natural sciences. HumTec contributes to this measure by providing a framework for top interdisciplinary research. In HumTec social scientists as well as engineers, natural scientists and physicians work together in interdisciplinary teams on highly relevant societal challenges.
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 | IBBT want to create a lasting and positive impact on society through ICT innovation: demand driven, interdisciplinary research in collaboration with technology suppliers and users; excellence in research in domains with a high societal relevance; stimulating entrepreneurship; a wide (inter)national ecosystem for ICT innovation.
It is actually experimenting two Case on Homecare and independent living in Living Lab:
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 | halsansnyaverktyg.se is a regional growth initiative (Independent living and home-based care non-profit organisation) in East Sweden started in 2005 funded by VINNOVA, municipalities, the county council, industry and university. It is conducting a reality check on Cardiac Power "GNSS Living Lab Prize 2010" idea.
The centre offers:
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 | The Homokháti Rural Livinglab (hereinafter referred to as H-Lab) is one of the first living labs formed in Hungary. The Homokháti Small Area is situated in the southern region of Hungary, where the majority of inhabitants are living in rural areas, small villages and detached farms. By involving these inhabitants in the development process of new products and services we aim to create better life conditions and higher standards to the people, with projects that are aiming to raise quality of life.
In the Health domain H-Lab has participated in two national projects which developed telemedicine solutions for home monitoring. It served as testbeds during the projects, and also helped organizing the clinical trials for the validation of the services. Based on the experiences of these projects, it has developed an online management tool that helps coordination of a clinical trial and maintains clear administration of the tasks ahead. H-Lab Living Lab offers:
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