OBJECTIVE. Nowadays chronic disease management represents a critical matter for worldwide National Health System. In order to guarantee its social and economic sustainability, healthcare delivery process which considers higher patients’ active participation has to be promoted. It may be fostered by increasing relationships between patients and healthcare organization, through co-productive approach. Indeed, co-production is based on the idea of changing the passive patient approach by creating the expectation of equivalently active roles between clients and providers in the delivery of service that clients use (Osborne, 2016). In healthcare, in particular, co-production is based on the establishment of partnerships between professionals and patients by overcoming the assumption that users are passive recipients of healthcare and recognises their contribution in the delivery of a service (Cahn, 2000).
Advancement in new health technologies endorsed a patient-oriented management of healthcare service. Consequently, the “traditional feedback approach” is quite exceeded in favour of more participatory healthcare delivery process developed by sharing provision of services, knowledge and new ideas. This circumstance is particularly relevant in the treatment of diabetes. Indeed, well-informed and technology-oriented diabetic individuals may represent a useful example of co-producers: these patients both provide by themselves and share with physician biomedical data. This co-productive approach guarantees benefits both for patients and for the provider; it potentially leads to an accurate and constant monitoring of the disease, appropriate therapy, better life quality for patients and lower costs for providers. Accordingly, some features of technology (e.g. connectivity, portability, user-facility) could be able to increase patients’ co-productivity. However, in order to explore conditions under which co-production is effective, the first requirement is to understand clients’ needs and motivations to co-produce (Verschuere et al, 2012).
Hence, this work would analyse diabetic patients’ features and preferences in order to examine which technological factors make co-production effective in diabetes daily management
METHOD. A 26-questions online survey on Type 1 diabetics was conducted between July and September 2017. Over the patients’ general features (age, gender, infusion therapy used), the questionnaire explored following main users’ dimensions: i) experience, ii) satisfaction; iii) communication. Questions included 4 possible answers based on a rating scale.
By using IBM SPSS software, the sample was described and analysed. Non-parametric statistical tests (e.g. Chi-Squared) was run in order to understand significance (P-Value <0,05) between patients’ features and their co-productivity inclination..
PRELIMINARY RESULTS AND CONCLUSION. 802 respondents; female (63%) and <30y.o. (59%) is more inclined to co-produce; this agrees with main literature statements (Ryan and Sysko, 2007). Concerning with technology features, most significant ones for co-producers are those able to increase information exchange with healthcare providers: i) customization; ii) web-space availability; iii) cloud communication. Diabetic co-producers are also more inclined to test new therapies and to reduce in-office follow-up checks in favour of remote controls.
Technological innovation and user-facility are critical matters for increasing patient’s inclination to co-produce. Accordingly, healthcare providers have to include these issues in decision-making about technology, in order to design more participatory models for chronicity management aimed at high-quality services and economic sustainability.
Value co-creation, co-design and co-production in public services
Palozzi_Falivena_Bravi_Chirico_WHAT_DOES_PATIENT_NEED__IRSPM18.pdf 