INVAHOME
A strategy for optimising care at home.
At my last employer, as Head of New Business Development EMEA, I developed a new strategy for home care. This strategy has been developed to promote and optimise home care for ageing people. The strategy is based on two trends:
- The home care market is the fastest growing market segment.
- The need to continue living at home longer, and the desire of the elderly to live at home longer.
The need for the ageing person to have to live independently at home for longer is caused by a shortage of nursing staff, lesser budget, and reduced capacity in care facilities, as well as increasing costs of care. The strategy provides solutions that can reduce healthcare costs through, among other things, prevention, and application of technology. In addition, the strategy describes how a healthcare provider, a manufacturer or a reseller of aids can play a role in the client’s care needs at an early stage. That role can grow into a guiding role during the life of the aging client.
To facilitate independent living at home for longer, a number of solutions have been developed. The first solution was found in the application of IoT-based applications that take over part of the care tasks. The second solution was found in products that were developed purely for home care with a design that fits into the home environment. This ensures that the living environment remains a homely living environment, and that the living environment is not partly transformed into a hospital by the use of aids. Examples of these products are an innovative hoist, Lyte, and the concept to replace the classic commode, the “3-in-1 toilet solution”.
The setup of the strategy is based on a different customer segmentation. This segmentation is the result of an extensive survey performed amongst home care recipients. We did not consider the need for care only, but we also considered the way in which the person anticipates his changing situation. How does the client feel about the growing need for care and dependency, and how does he anticipate preparing for aging? This has ultimately led to the five pillars on which strategy is built, a solid roadmap and the basis of a new ecosystem.
The strategy was sponsored and approved by Ralf Ledda, former SVP & General Manager Invacare International GmbH, and developed in collaboration with Orange Hills GmbH.
Sprints, set up according to the Business Design method, have led to various product concepts (“minimal viable product”) and a new business model. The development of the final products was carried out by own development team with support of UpDesign Studio as UX-partner and design partner.
INVAHOME is a registered trademark of Invacare International GmbH.
The strategy and all its components are intellectual property rights of Invacare International GmbH.
