e-Health and Co-production: Critical Drivers for Chronic Diseases Management.

A progressively ageing population makes the healthcare management of chronic diseases (e.g. heart failure (HF), diabetes, geriatric psychosis) an extremely relevant matter for worldwide national health systems, as chronicity persists for a long time and generally cannot be permanently cured. In order to ensure the economic and social sustainability of treating such diseases, new healthcare business models, based on innovative tools and patients’ participation, should be considered. The adoption of new technologies and the active involvement of patients in the therapeutic pathway might represent fundamental drivers in healthcare delivery innovation. Accordingly, empirical evidence about Chronic Diseases Management, based on new technologies, such as remote monitoring (RM) systems, shows how patients are enabled to actively take part in the follow-up process. This “co-production” approach to the service has shown a reduction in health organizations’ workload for the same level of outcome (e.g. hospitalization rate reduction), suggesting new opportunities in the design of healthcare delivery systems. Moreover, within this evidence, end-users’ (patients and their caregivers) collaboration, i.e. more skilled and ICT-adoption oriented, represents strong support to the medical profession, as well as to patients’ satisfaction and loyalty. Drawing from these premises, this work aims at summarizing Italian empirical evidence highlighted through the case study method) of co-production and telemedicine joint implementation. Specifically, through such evidence, we aim to describe how e-Health and co-production could prove to be crucial organizational drivers in Chronic Diseases Management, both in cost reduction and in service (outcome) innovation.