POLICY AND SME TOOLS TRANSLATED INTO 6 EUROPEAN LANGUAGES

Did you know that by 2060, every third European will be older than 65 years? It makes the “Silver Economy” one of the fastest-growing economic domains. Because many solutions for the elderly are digital-based and not well accepted, there is a growing need to involve them in the product design process. This will ensure that the product/service is designed for seniors’ needs and they will use it.

"The whole project consortium is approaching the challenge from the perspective of the healthcare system. We see info-communication technologies as useful tools to improve the home care possibilities and make life easier for care recipients, and for the carers as well”, says Karel Huk, communication manager of HoCare2.0.

Involving the elderly

Project HoCare2.0 is here to support the creation of highly innovative home-care services or products by co-creation. Co-creation is a process of collaborative development that ensures great results, far beyond the scope of what one organization or a person could do alone.

Each project partner cooperates with the representatives of so-called Quadruple Helix. It involves SMEs, Research organizations or the Academia, Providers of public health or social services and home care recipients with their family members. All those groups work together on the design of new services or products.

 The Tools

To guide and support them during the whole design process, the project consortium have developed two tools – Policy Tool for creation of innovative home care services; and SME Tool for development of innovative home care products. „Each Tool provides step-by-step guidance in using the co-creation approach, defining customer’s needs, introduction to how to work with the representatives of Quadruple Helix, or how to evaluate their feedback to get the right output”, says Csaba Bende, one of the co-authors of the Tools.

 Each Tool contains of 4 parts:

• Part One shows the reader to the co-creation process; details its advantages and disadvantages and what is it good for; 
• Part Two introduces the possibilities of co-creation in healthcare and brings you closer to home care and its solutions;
• Part Three provides measures on how to receive the required feedback from the elderly in different stages of the development process;
• Part Four details best practices and examples of successful co-creation. The Tools close with a Checklist of what are the next steps in product or service development.

Tools were translated from English into another 6 European languages: German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Slovenian and Czech. The Tools are available for free to everyone interested in getting a competitive advantage, increase market share and come up with a brand new solution that is not currently on the market.

 About HoCare2.0

HoCare2.0 project is funded by the Interreg CENTRAL EUROPE Programme. The project is lead by a partnership of 11 partners from 6 different Central European countries, including partners from the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland and Slovenia. With funding from the European Regional Development Fund, the programme supports various institutions from public administration and service providers to business support organization to work together and improve innovation in Central Europe.

Its mission is to provide customer-centered home care solutions by the use of co-creation method. It means engaging SMEs, public institutions, research institutions and the citizens in the development of new innovative health and social services or products.