Jönköping Health Region has signed an agreement with CheckWare within digital patient participation. This is the first contract CheckWare gets in Sweden, and the first step in a wider international investment. - The fact that one supplier can handle all digital aspects has been crucial for us, says Region Jönköping's project manager for purchase and implementation, Hans Lafin.
CheckWare has ambitions of becoming the global leading solution for digital patient participation. The company already has this leading position within mental health in Norway. The next step in the international growth is to focus on Sweden. A subsidiary is established in Gothenburg, with several full-time employees. For now, the Swedish operations
are managed from Norway.
- Originally, we started CheckWare with a focus on psychometric tests in mental health, and this is where we have the longest experience. We are employing our Norwegian success formula into the Swedish market. It is all about quality, reliability and a strong commitment to our customers. We want support them in the digital transformation, a change that all our customers must go through, says CEO of CheckWare, Heidi Blengsli Aabel.
Strong need for a common solution
CheckWare has signed a major agreement with the Jönköping region who wanted centralization for purchase and use of digital health services within mental health and psychometric tests. The Swedish health region asked for offers to meet their needs and CheckWare submitted a bid that led to an agreement.
- Our initial requirement was within mental health, where we need a large number of psychometric tests. This area has been quite unstructured, and we needed to switch from manual processes to a comprehensive digital platform. These data fall under the Swedish personal data legislation, so it is important for us to have control and overview, explains Hans Lafin, project manager in the Jönköping Region.
Business developer Sandrah Sollenby in Region Jönköping supplements:
- We have three mental health clinics, a habilitation clinic and a child and adolescent mental health clinic within the framework of the project. Having the possibility to gather everything in one place and integrating the digital information into the patient record system, was not least important for the patient data security.
First CheckWare customer in Sweden
Hans Lafin says that the region did a thorough job when researching digital solutions with proper information security handling.
- In our eyes, CheckWare is a great supplier, and they score high on all these levels. It is a basic premise for us when we consider potential suppliers, says Lafin.
Sollenby and Lafin admits that it has come with an extra effort to be the first Swedish customer. CheckWare’s list of available assessments is long. The Swedish health region has ordered some new assessments in addition, and in total all these assessments will have to be adapted to the Swedish market.
- We feel that we have CheckWare’s full attention on this, and they take care of everything related to the assessment rights. Our introduction process with CheckWare has raised a lot of attention, and there are many eyes watching us to see if the process is successful or not. The partnership with CheckWare feels genuine, honest, and good, says Sollenby.
CheckWare has a lot of work ahead of them when they are now entering new, unknown markets. The company must now ensure the approval of updated assessments, obtain approved versions, as well as keeping control of royalties.
Hans Lafin adds:
- The only risk we see is time. A lot has to be ready already in January 2022. Rights will have to be confirmed with right holders. We want the project plan to be carried out as planned, including the time when we start using the assessments, says Lafin.
Simpler everyday life for everyone
By implementing CheckWare, the region will reduce the time spent on collecting patient reported data through assessment tools and psychometric tests. Sandrah Sollenby says that they are happy that the region does this now.
- Modern solutions have been in demand for a long time. This is a long-awaited upgrade that will benefit both the clinicians and the patients. In general, I think digitization is positive for all parties, whether it is within mental health or in somatics. It is important that the products and the health services are scalable, she believes.
Before their physical appointment with clinicians, patients now answer assessments and psychometric tests at home, on their personal devices. This leads to a higher degree of patient involvement, in addition to the clinicians being more prepared when meeting the patients.
The automatic generation of reports is used for clinical decision support, which clinicians will find available in the patient record system before the consultation. It provides easier access to collected patient-reported data, which can also be used for research purposes. Genuinely interested in safety
- It is important that we use IT as a secure tool in our daily work with patients. We now see the opportunity to offer even more secure and equal care for our residents. With digital documents, we ensure that the right basis is used in our work. We reduce the administrative burden in the system when sending out assessments, collecting the answers, and compiling the results. Time can rather be redirected towards the patients and development of the business, says Micael Edblom, Director of Health in Region Jönköping.
- This agreement means a lot to CheckWare, says Vice President International Development in CheckWare, Odd Inge Hellesylt. He is in responsible for CheckWare’s international growth.
- Region Jönköping is a mature and forward-thinking customer who is passionate about digitization. They want to use our solution within mental health in all hospitals in the region. We have a very good cooperation based on trust and understanding. They are particularly concerned about security, Hellesylt explains.
There are public guidelines that governs the introduction and operation of digital services. This means that the CheckWare solution is distributed through servers in a data hall that Region Jönköping has at its disposal. The data is not added to the cloud.
- In this introductory phase, we have two main focuses: One is IT with focus on security, and the other is the digitization journey among our employees. It is very important to us that those who work with this on a daily basis feel that they benefit from the new, digital routines, Sandrah Sollenby says.