Midlothian HSCP TEC Pathfinder - Innovating in the Frailty System

Project impact

Development of a non-functional prototype to improve the experience of people living with frailty (family, carers and staff)

Potential use of the non-functional prototype to develop a live prototype and services trial

Midlothian Health and Social Care Partnership (MHSCP) received Scottish Government TEC Pathfinder funding to explore how digital technology can innovate the frailty care system in Midlothian. Partnering with DHI, MHSCP uses design-led approaches to engage citizens, clinical and service stakeholders, and key partners like the British Red Cross and VOCAL.

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The project began in 2019 and follows the Scottish Approach to Service Design (SAtSD). In applying this, this enables us to start with a ‘blank canvas’ to develop, without boundaries or preconceptions, what the best approach would be to redesign for frailty services, identifying some key barriers and potential solutions. There were a number of stages to the project:

Stage 1 of the project ‘Discover and Define’ was completed in 2020 which gained insight into the challenges for citizens and helped define some of the barriers and areas of focus for the next stage of the project.
Stage 2, the ‘develop and deliver’, started to design the solution using a combination of technology and service development.

Through this stage, it was agreed that innovation was required to improve the early assessment process and reduce the need to repeat the same information to different services as the citizen progresses through the care pathway.

Summary

Partners

To improve the experience of those living with frailty for the person, their family, carers and staff, through the development of safe, reliable systems and pathways of care processes, breaking down the barriers between organisations.

Impact & value

Stage 3 was completed in 2023 which produced a non-functional prototype (non-functioning software that is a realistic user interface that shows the person’s journey through the digital service). This is a non-functional prototype of British Red Cross frailty assessment that can connect with VOCAL systems fed by a personal data store. It would in practice enable citizens to tell their story once at the point of an improved frailty assessment, add to the information and share this with the different interested services and staff and caregivers.

Potential use of the non-functional prototype to develop a live prototype and services trial.