Delivering Innovative eHealth Services at Scale: Implementers’ Views on Achieving ‘Buy-In’

Abstract

The Living It Up project (LiU) is part of a £37 million UK-wide programme entitled Delivering Assisted Living Lifestyles at Scale (dallas). LiU aims to empower the people of Scotland to improve their health and well-being whilst enhancing their quality of life through innovative inter-connected technologies and services at scale. This study sets out to understand the experiences of ‘implementers’ and determine their views on the factors which can promote or inhibit successful implementation of a large-scale innovative eHealth deployment. N=6 semi-structured interviews have been conducted to date, and a further 12 are being conducted in order to capture how the views of implementers change over time. Normalisation Process Theory (NPT) is being used as the underpinning conceptual framework for the study. In this case-study, we focus on the NPT domain of ‘Cognitive Participation’. Initial findings highlight the difficulty of innovating at scale. For example, it became clear throughout our interviews that ‘co-designing’ innovative products and services takes time. This means that ‘polished’ end-products are not available immediately which in turns makes it more difficult to sustain enthusiasm and engagement from co-design activities participants. Also, personal communication has been a key driver of enrolment. However, this approach is difficult to sustain at scale. Further follow up of the implementation journey will allow us to gain valuable insights into the barriers and facilitators in the deployment of large-scale eHealth initiatives.