The future is a digital home helper

Read the full article in Danish here.

Troels Andersen, PA Consulting Group expert in strategy and digitization in the public sector, shares his views on how new technologies can change public welfare services in Denmark.

A wide variety of new technologies are changing the way we use public welfare services. We already know that new technology leads to significant changes in health, care and other major welfare areas. MRI scanners, pacemakers and x-ray equipment are all examples of technology that were extremely advanced when introduced into the healthcare system.

Over the last five to ten 10 years, digitization has been found to be essential in health care, with a much greater focus on communication with the patient. Concrete examples are for example telemedicine home monitoring and digital training solutions that are increasingly being used increasingly in municipal rehabilitation.

Compared to earlier days, it is a breakthrough that the technologies used by trained professionals - such as monitoring heart rate or blood glucose monitoring devices - can now be combined with the citizen's individual's own technologies - smart phone and tablet. This development paves the way for brand new treatments and care options.

For example, at PA Consulting Group, we helped facilitate the use of Amazon Echo technology to support older people who need care .

In short, Amazon Echo is a voice-enabled home speaker with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, powered by Alexa software. Echo users can add new "skills" to the device and just ask "Alexa" to remind them to take medicine or check when their nurses should arrive, etc. A kind of friend in the room who can remind people to do essential things thus helping them stay in their own homes for a long time.

“Now we can work directly with a private company like Amazon, one of the largest internet-based retailers in the world, to make a difference to some of the most vulnerable people in society.

It's just a matter of daring to look up and forth beyond - and realize that we are entering a new paradigm, also in the social and health field,” Troels Andersen comments.