European Partnership on Competencies for High Value COst COnscious CARE Erasmus Project

Project Title

European Partnership on Competencies for High Value COst COnscious CARE

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Health and wellbeing

Project Summary

With the growing medical possibilities, new questions arise. It is not only a matter of being able to treat, but also of considering the added value of treatment. In deciding the value of treatment, many factors have to be weighed, such as health benefit, quality of life effect and expenses. Guidelines are directive in making such treatment decisions. As such, medical guidelines have a considerable influence on the quality and effectiveness of healthcare and allow the (future) healthcare professional to be as cost-conscious as possible, especially as the role of specialists in cost conscious care is thought to have become more prominent (needs analysis by the CoCoCARE consortium).

However, despite the importance of medical guidelines for cost-effective healthcare, there is little educational attention for it in regular medical training programmes. On a European level, training is dispersed in terms of content and geography. Additionally, the educational programmes that are available have limited focus on competence development, whereas guideline development and the effective implementation thereof relies heavily on a broad range of competences (CanMEDS). Therefore, teaching guideline development offers the opportunity to develop these general competences that are essential in daily practice, also when not developing guidelines.

In order to fill the educational gap on guidelines and competences, this project aims to develop a state-of-the-art educational programme to be used for medical residents across Europe. The objective of the project is two-fold:
1) teaching specialists to develop and implement high quality, evidence-based guidelines and;
2) equip specialists with the competences and teach them to be more cost conscious.

These objectives will be achieved by a highly integrated, international blended learning programme for medical specialists in training. The programme combines e-learning, plenary discussions and workshops, self-study and practical training from an innovative holistic approach. The content of the programme will also be comprehensive and integrated as it covers all steps that are crucial in developing medical guidelines. In order to do so it will cover the following topics:
– PATIENT-CENTERED ASSESSMENT: Patient experiences are weighed. In order to do this, specialists will be taught to identify knowledge gaps and define corresponding questions. Moreover, inclusion and exclusion criteria will be defined. (>IO1)
– EVIDENCE REVIEW: Participants should be taught how to properly collect, interpret, combine and evaluate evidence. (>IO2)
– COST CONSCIOUS CARE. In order to be able to compare treatment options on their cost effectiveness participants should be taught to interpret changes in costs and (health) benefits of treatments. This includes estimations of long-term benefits, in terms of health outcome, health related quality of life and cost savings. (>IO3)
– IMPLEMENTATION IN PRACTICE. Medical residents will learn to assess feasibility of practical implementation and will develop the skills to design an implementation strategy. (>IO4)

Moreover, the CoCoCARE project will deliver an EDUCATION SUPPORT TOOLBOX (>IO5). The topics within the educational modules will have to be presented with a didactical approach that enhances learning and ensures usage of the knowledge and skills. This demands a highly integrated approach. A toolbox will offer all the needed tools, such as portals for communication among trainees and with trainers. The toolbox will also include instructions on the use of al educational materials. This will ensure the optimal learning experience and effectiveness.

In CoCoCARE the described training programme and the necessary tools and materials will be developed. Moreover, they will be piloted in two subsequent rounds to enable evaluation, revision and optimisation in an iterative process. The first pilot will be run at the partner institutes (C1A1), the second also at the associate partners to enhance geographical spread, number of residents and overall impact (C1A2). In total at least 40 participants will be enrolled in the programme during this project. On the long run, much larger numbers of participants will be reached.

However, not only the participants will benefit from the project. As a results of the learning process of the participants, guidelines and thus care will improve. This will have a positive effect on medical professionals as well as patients. The medical professionals will benefit from better guidelines because they will streamline and standardise the work, whereas the patients will benefit from optimal care thanks to the evidence-based reviews of treatment effectivity. Last but not least, the training programme will support medical professionals in making cost conscious decisions. In the age of ever-increasing healthcare expenses, managing healthcare costs is more important than ever.

Project Website

https://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/research/cost-conscious-healthcare-cococare

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 375087 Eur

Project Coordinator

STICHTING KEMPENHAEGHE & Country: NL

Project Partners

• UNIVERSITAT FUR WEITERBILDUNG KREMS
• UNIVERSITEIT MAASTRICHT
• HEALTHCARE IMPROVEMENT SCOTLAND
• FUNDACIO PRIVADA INSTITUT DE RECERCA DE L’HOSPITAL DE LA SANTA CREU I SANT PAU
• KLEIJNEN SYSTEMATIC REVIEWS LTD