Patient perspective drives improvement
The different perspectives of patients, professionals, organization and knowledge-based practice interact in the development of healthcare. This is shown by research from Sofia Persson, who defended her PhD at the School of Health and Welfare, Jönköping University (JU) on 3 October. The studies show that structured approaches to including patients have provided a lot of knowledge that has led to improvement work over time.
Sofia Persson, who, in addition to being a doctoral student at the School of Health and Welfare, is a development manager in public health and healthcare in Region Jönköping County, has investigated the importance of co-production in improvement work in healthcare, and how different perspectives together contribute to the development of new working methods. The aim was to explore how improvement work and models that integrate co-creation have emerged and been applied in Region Jönköping County, as well as lessons learned from the care of multiple sclerosis (MS).
"The results describe how patient roles and organized improvement work that includes co-creation have evolved over time towards more formal structures, established processes and clear roles. Some concrete examples of this in Region Jönköping County are Living Library and Peer," says Sofia Persson.
Four different perspectives
The doctoral thesis consists of four sub-studies where the results are summarized from the perspectives of patients, profession, system and science-informed practice. In the studies, it can be seen that the work within Region Jönköping County to find a structured way to include patients has provided a lot of knowledge that has led to improvement work over time.
"The improvement model applied in MS care explores different ways of getting to know a patient group with the support of different types of data such as patients' lived experiences, system measures and clinical data, but also that we need to develop and evaluate new ways of working in relation to the needs of the group. The exploration of MS care shows that it is important to develop knowledge and methods for a meaningful understanding and representation of different patient groups, as well as to understand more of different perspectives that meet in practice," says Sofia Persson.
More voices and perspectives needed
Looking ahead, Sofia Persson sees that it is also important to develop more co-production with people and groups that are not organized within Region Jönköping County.
"I think that research needs to continue to explore who is included or unintentionally excluded in improvement work and any consequences of this in relation to equal care. Not only understanding and describing different needs, but also designing health services that meet different needs is also an important area," says Sofia Persson.
