A consortium of 13 European partners is developing tools that will help healthcare systems provide better standard care during health emergencies.
When COVID-19 swept across Europe, hospitals struggled to provide routine care while managing pandemic patients. Healthcare systems were stretched caring for urgent coronavirus cases, yet people still needed cancer treatments, cardiac procedures, diabetes management and more.
The burdens started accumulating: surgeries were postponed, appointments delayed. Some patients, fearing infection or reluctant to burden overwhelmed systems, stopped seeking care. The consequences can still be felt. Missed diagnoses and delayed treatments have led to poorer health outcomes that will affect healthcare systems for years to come.
Funded by Horizon Europe, the RAPIDE project is developing tools to optimise routine care delivery during the next health emergency. The initiative is creating and testing new approaches that maintain quality care for all patients, even when resources are pushed to their limits.
Learning from COVID-19
To build its methodology, RAPIDE started by examining routine care during COVID-19. The research team identified which services were most disrupted, which patient groups faced the greatest barriers to accessing care and what solutions emerged. They also conducted interviews with healthcare managers, clinicians, general practitioners, patients and informal caregivers across Europe. Together with data analysis, the findings helped build a comprehensive picture of how health emergencies disrupt routine care.
Planning and balancing demands
Imagine if a hospital could see a week into the future. Planning care delivery would be significantly improved. With this in mind, RAPIDE is developing forecasting tools to help healthcare systems better manage demands and resources by tracking hospital bed occupancy, admissions and other critical resources during health emergencies.
The new framework operates at two timescales: short-term forecasts (one to seven days ahead) support immediate operational decisions, while long-term projections (weeks to months ahead) inform strategic planning. Knowing an emergency department will likely face a surge in three days allows hospitals to schedule additional staff, defer non-urgent procedures and prepare accordingly.
Rethinking how care is delivered
One of RAPIDE’s objectives is to understand how care could be reconfigured during emergencies. To that end, the team is analysing patient care pathways to identify alternatives – what must be done in hospital and what can be shifted to primary or community care settings, and which components patients could manage at home with proper support and digital tools.
The project is developing a ‘hybrid care model’ that blends in-person and remote care, empowering patients to self-manage with appropriate support. The aim is to deliver high-quality care in the right place, at the right time, using resources intelligently.
The model creates new learning needs across the care chain. To address them, RAPIDE will run human-centred workshops to co-define what those needs are and co-create messaging and training resources for key stakeholders.
Feasibility testing and demonstration
Healthcare models and tools succeed only if they work in practice. RAPIDE is testing its proposals through ‘living labs’ in Italy, Malta, the Netherlands and Slovenia, refining approaches in real healthcare settings with actual patients and clinicians.
Testing focuses on people with type 2 diabetes, heart failure and elective orthopaedic hip surgery. These conditions require vital routine care that can be modified during emergencies. Working with patients, carers, general practitioners and community care providers, RAPIDE is developing practical approaches to maintaining quality hybrid care under extraordinary pressure.
To ensure uptake, the project includes scenario simulation and technology demonstration involving diverse stakeholders from multiple EU countries, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, the World Health Organization, and the Directorates-General for Health and Food Safety and for Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations.
Building the toolbox
RAPIDE represents a systematic effort to create replicable approaches that any healthcare system can adapt. To achieve this, it will deliver a comprehensive, first-of-its-kind toolbox including forecasting models, a hybrid care model, and training resources for healthcare providers, decision-makers, citizens and vulnerable populations. These tools will be open-access, available to healthcare systems across Europe and beyond.
The principles that help hospitals sustain routine care during emergencies – smart resource allocation, flexible service delivery, patient empowerment and digital care tools – can also strengthen healthcare delivery in everyday settings. This way, in the event of a health emergency, European healthcare systems will be better equipped with tools and approaches to ensure no patient is left behind.
Discover more at https://www.rapideproject.eu