We generate, communicate and utilise new health knowledge – without reforms

By Chief Medical Officer, DMSc Per Jørgensen, Human First; Central Denmark Region, Aarhus University and VIA University College.

The healthcare system comprises many different parts that are connected with one another in a chain which must not be broken. Researchers generate new knowledge which must then be passed on to the practitioners who people actually meet when they become ill. This is achieved through education and competency development. With the help of research and education, healthcare professionals are thus readied to meet the reality of dealing with the individual patient and their distinct situation in what is termed clinical practice. The intention is to shorten the distance between new knowledge and those who are ill.

In the Central Denmark Region, we have a long tradition of collaboration on research, development and education in the healthcare sector. Every day, people working in the Central Denmark Region, at Aarhus University and at VIA University College, produce good results and conditions for patients and the population in general. However, individual employees might not always be aware that there are colleagues nearby who are working with similar topics and issues, and we sometimes experience a distance between what is being done in the individual unit and those who are ill that is too great and counterproductive. Of course, geographical distance means something – but perhaps the mental distance internally between professionals and in relation to those who are ill means even more.

Now we are raising the bar even higher by introducing the Human First partnership. The name says it all: It is about focusing on people with the aim of improving the individual’s possibility of living a healthy life.

Human First is a mutually binding partnership that criss-crosses the existing structures. It is professional experts from different professions who now join together in a more structured way to bring new initiatives into play that will benefit our patients.

It applies to patients with diseases and brain injuries and for people with rehabilitation needs. These two topics have been chosen as the first initiatives in the Human First partnership because diseases of the brain are a global issue and one which is growing in line with average life expectancy, and because more people survive and live with the consequences of diseases or accidents. As an example, at this very moment researchers, teachers and healthcare professionals are embarking on the development of new knowledge and new competences that can help people in their recovery from a heart disease – and do this regardless of whether they live in the east or west of the region.

New diseases, improved treatment methods and prolonged life expectancy place new demands on the healthcare system. For this reason, the healthcare sector is not just a fleeting election topic, but a constant and highly prioritised topic of discussion in general. Many questions are being asked: How can we prevent diseases and maintain a healthy life? Who can ensure that the highly-specialised knowledge from the researchers and university hospital reaches the general practitioners? Where can you find help if there is a lack of general practitioners, the hospital is some distance away and you do not know where the right points of contact in the municipality are? How do you get the best and latest treatment, which you see being talked about in the media, but which only a few experts really know about? Who is responsible for the initiatives from the many healthcare providers and who safeguards both quality and coherence? Who is working to ensure that the lack of e.g. nurses does not become worse?

With Human First, we demonstrate a high level of ambition, and we believe we can live up to it in a close mutual collaboration – and we already know we are collaborating with the strongest healthcare environments in the world.

We have approximately 35,000 employees in Human First, and none of us knows as much as all of us together. Our knowledge ranges from DNA research to osteoarthritis in abattoir workers. Each of the three organisations are in themselves large with a need for meaningful decisions and effective organisation, so that structural barriers do not get in the way of important decisions and professional initiatives. The distance between decisions and the reality that employees find themselves in must not be too great.

Few areas are in such expansive development as the healthcare sector. Nevertheless, people still want to see better healthcare on offer with a higher degree of quality and coherence. We will only get this if we incorporate the local healthcare system with the municipalities and general practitioners and if we succeed in being attractive to both business and industry and collaborative partners from abroad.

The municipalities already have a range of tasks within the healthcare sector; however, the majority of them are characterised more by being operational tasks rather than developmental tasks. The municipalities in the Central Denmark Region are generally positive when it comes to closer cooperation, and though the 19 municipalities have different starting points, we in Human First still believe that the existing collaboration can be expanded. The approximately 900 general practitioners in the region are a vital pivotal force in the local healthcare system; but as small operational units, they often find it difficult to commit to these types of larger and binding partnerships. This is a challenge we will face in the coming years as the general practitioners must find their place in the partnership.

With its scope and diversity, the healthcare system is interesting for several sections of business and industry, and as a major knowledge and service organisation, Human First wants to strengthen this cooperation. We are convinced that this type of strengthened public-private partnership will benefit us all, which is also supported by the fact that Human First is establishing collaborations with organisations from abroad with comparable – though not identical – ambitions and situations.

At a time where cooperation, interaction and co-creation are generally viewed as answers to the major challenges society is facing, Human First acts as an illustrative and innovative example of the three organisation’s shared and high level of ambition within the healthcare sector.

As professionals and organisations, we have lowered our guard and reached out to each other. Once we have made more progress in defining our partnership and interaction, we will invite other stakeholders to join us – not least the population and patients in general. With people as the focal point in Human First, it is their voice and active participation along with that of the patients that are crucial for realising our vision and ambition. So that living in the Central Denmark Region is an even healthier experience – regardless of reforms and structures.

The article was published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on 23 April 2019.