PRODIGE

How did your project come about?

Members of the Walloon primary care Platform (PPLW) reported a demand from healthcare professionals for practical tools to guide them in making relevant and ethical choices among DMDs (Digital Medical Devices). The PRODIGE project (primary care Professionals for the Selection of Digital Medical Devices) was created in response to this need across various care and support professions.

This project also offers an opportunity to apply the 8 principles for caring technology in healthcare to the realities of different professions from a multidisciplinary perspective. PPLW had previously explored these 8 principles, notably through its partnership in the Teckno2030 in Action project and their presentation to all members.

‍

What are your project objectives?

The project aims to engage PPLW members and the field providers they represent to ensure a thorough understanding of the 8 Caring Technology principles when selecting and utilizing digital medical devices. 

It seeks to enhance the knowledge and skills of PPLW members and the professionals they work with, emphasizing critical aspects of choosing and using these devices effectively. 

Additionally, the project intends to deliver a set of recommendations to participants and, ultimately, healthcare providers—particularly those serving French-speaking Belgians and beyond—to guide them in prescribing and incorporating digital medical devices into routine care.

‍

‍Why is your project important?

Digital health applications struggle to prove their ability to improve care experience, population health, cost reduction, equitable outcomes, and the professional lives of clinicians and staff.

With a concrete approach (decision-making in selection), our project contributes to introducing caring technology principles, promoting patient empowerment in using these tools, and addressing the associated ethical aspects.

A project like this also helps reduce disparities between professionals regarding digital health literacy.Our project is particularly important because, by making informed choices, we hope to raise awareness among primary care professionals about relevant and ethical use of DMDs.

‍

How are you proceeding?

We opted for a participatory methodology with PPLW members to co-create recommendations. PPLW members represent primary care care and support professions in Wallonia, such as general practitioners, nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists, dentists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, clinical psychologists, dietitians, midwives, and multidisciplinary structures also representing support professions: InterSISD, InterRML, Medical Houses, Coordination Centers, and Family Assistance Services (SAFA). A representative of specialist doctors completed this panel. The project was thus conducted with a firmly multidisciplinary approach.

Two data sources were used: information from exchanges with PPLW members during three participatory workshops and structured literature research conducted by two members of ULiège’s Department of Public Health Sciences. The literature findings iteratively enriched the professionals' exchanges during the workshops.

In the first workshop, representatives of field providers shared their observations regarding DMD use. This was followed by a discussion to develop a shared understanding of DMD challenges and the 8 principles, defining the scope of the parallel literature review.

The second and third workshops focused on co-creating the necessary recommendations for selecting DMDs, informed by the literature review. The exchanges led to a set of recommendations validated by all professions.
In a second phase, the tool will be designed to allow French-speaking primary care health professionals to easily adopt and practically use it in the field.

‍

What challenges have you faced?

Firstly, we found that participants' digital literacy levels were highly varied, necessitating a review of some basic concepts to clarify the recommendations.
‍
Furthermore, the DMD field is vast, with varied uses across different professions. One major challenge was refining a targeted research question. The tool remains extensive, as stakeholders agreed on many priority dimensions for DMD selection.
‍
Finally, the tool currently requires considerable time to consult. Aware that field providers’ available time for evaluating the added value and safety of a DMD varies by professional profile, work environment, and other criteria, we emphasize the need for a second project phase. This phase will focus on developing an easy-to-adopt tool for field professionals, testing it with field providers, and promoting its dissemination.

‍

What lessons have you learned from this process?

Our project to adopt digital medical devices (DMDs) in digital health highlighted essential lessons for implementing caring technologies.

Firstly, we observed a significant disparity in digital health literacy among providers, underscoring the need to revisit basics: what DMDs are, where to find them, and what assessment criteria to use. Notably, as a result, PPLW’s first 2025 exchange day will focus on “Multidisciplinary 2.0 and Digital Health Literacy.”

Secondly, the chosen participatory and iterative approach proved beneficial, combining workshop exchanges with PPLW members and literature research. This methodology enriched discussions with evidence, enhancing the recommendations' relevance and utility. This underscores the importance of a macro-multidisciplinary structure like PPLW in successfully collaborating with research centres like UC Louvain and ULiège.
A tool resulting from multidisciplinary participatory work ensures adoption of recommendations in both single-profession and multi-profession environments.

In the long term, our project aims to promote best practices, influence developers to integrate ethical principles of caring technologies, and encourage authorities to support PPLW’s efforts in this area.

‍