mHealth booster user-driven approach to boost the use of health technology among elderly people Paula Lehto a a
Principal Lecturer, PhD - Laurea University of Applied Sciences
Abstract mHealth booster is a project funded by the European Development Fund (ESR) and the Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment of Uusimaa Finland. The project is implemented by Laurea University of Applied Sciences during August 2013 to December 2014. The purpose of the project is to design and produce development environments for and with the elderly people and professionals from the cities of Espoo and Vantaa in Finland and the development environments are the physical spaces where different health technology products and services can be tested with the users, the experts, and the companies. The mHealth booster project is based on an action research, Living lab methodology and user-driven methods. Action research as the methodological approach is congruent with the living lab methodology especially when the aim is to produce new knowledge or to develop new activities or interventions e.g. health technology service models with users in real life. In the project elderly people as users and health care professionals are in an active role in the development process of health technology and services. In this article the findings of the action research will be described in the context of the development environments from elderly people´s point of view. The purpose is to present the findings of the analysis where the mHealth booster project is used as a case for the categorization of different types of living labs based on Leminen, Westerlund and Nyström (2012). Key concepts Action Research, elderly people, living lab types,mHealth booster 1 mHealth booster mHealth booster is a project funded by the European Development Fund (ESR) and the Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment of Uusimaa Finland. The project is implemented by Laurea University of Applied Sciences during August 2013 to December 2014. The purpose of the project is to design and produce development environments for and with the cities of Espoo and Vantaa in Finland, where different health technology products and services are tested with the users, the experts, and the
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