User-Driven Innovation in Elderly Care (ANDI)

User-Driven Innovation in Elderly Care (ANDI) develops and tests digital solutions that strengthen elderly care services, particularly in sparsely populated regions. The project brings together older adults, care professionals, municipalities and companies in a collaborative innovation process to ensure that new digital services are based on real needs and can be implemented in practice.

Project overview

The project is carried out in collaboration with Botnia Living Lab at Luleå University of Technology, a research and innovation environment that supports user-driven development and testing of digital services in real-life contexts.

The overall ambition is to improve quality of life for older adults, enhance working conditions for care professionals and support more sustainable and efficient elderly care systems.

Background

Elderly care systems face increasing challenges due to demographic change, workforce shortages and unequal access to care services, particularly in rural and sparsely populated areas.

Digital technologies offer opportunities to address these challenges. However, successful implementation requires solutions that are developed together with the people who will use them. The ANDI project therefore focuses on user-driven innovation and co-creation between academia, municipalities, companies and end users.

Aim

The aim of the project is to develop, test and implement user-centred digital services that improve the quality, accessibility and sustainability of elderly care.

Method

The project applies methods inspired by living labs and design thinking, where users actively participate throughout the innovation process.

A comprehensive needs analysis will identify at least six potential digital services. From these, three solutions will be selected for further development and tested in real-life care environments in collaboration with participating municipalities and care organisations.

Through the Botnia Living Lab methodology, end users are involved from needs identification and concept development to testing and evaluation, ensuring that the solutions are relevant, usable and feasible in practice.

Expected results

The project will contribute to:

• Development and implementation of digital services for elderly care
• Improved quality of life and independence for older adults
• More efficient working methods for care professionals
• Strengthened digital competence among both staff and older adults
• Increased knowledge about user-driven innovation in elderly care

Results will be disseminated through scientific publications, a final report and a practical handbook to support future digitalisation initiatives in health and social care.