Human Centred Design (HCD) Group, Department of Design, Production and Management, Faculty of Engineering Technology (ET), University of Twente, Horst Complex, 7522 LV Enschede, The Netherlands.
Systemic Change Group, Department of Industrial Design, Eindhoven University of Technology, Atlas Building, 5612 AE Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Jan 17;20(3):1673. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20031673.
Dementia is a growing societal challenge putting pressure on care systems across Europe. Providing supporting technology for people living with dementia, referring to both people with dementia and their caregivers, is an important strategy to alleviate pressure. In this paper, we present lessons learned from the Interreg NWE Project Certification-D, in which we evaluated technological products with people living with dementia, using a Living Lab approach. Living Labs were set up in five different countries to conduct field evaluations at the homes of people living with dementia. Via an open call products from small to medium enterprises across northwestern Europe were selected to be evaluated in the Living Labs. In this paper, we describe the setup of and reflection on Living Labs as multi-stakeholder collaboration networks to evaluate technological products in the context of dementia. We reflect on the experiences and insights from the Living Lab researchers to execute and operate the Living Labs in such a sensitive setting. Our findings show that Living Labs can be used to conduct field evaluations of products, that flexibility is required to adopt a Living Lab in various care settings with different stakeholder compositions and expertise, and that Living Lab researchers serve as both a linking pin and buffer between people living with dementia and companies and thereby support the adoption of technological products. We close the paper with a proposal of best practices to encourage inclusivity in, and scalability of, Living Labs in the context of dementia.
痴呆症是一个日益严重的社会挑战，给整个欧洲的护理系统带来了压力。为患有痴呆症的人提供支持技术，包括痴呆症患者及其护理人员，是缓解压力的重要策略。在本文中，我们介绍了从 Interreg NWE 项目 Certification-D 中吸取的经验教训，我们使用现场实验室方法对患有痴呆症的人进行了技术产品评估。在五个不同的国家建立了现场实验室，在患有痴呆症的人的家中进行现场评估。通过公开征集，来自北欧西部的中小企业的产品被选中在现场实验室进行评估。在本文中，我们描述了现场实验室作为多利益相关者合作网络的设置和反思，以在痴呆症背景下评估技术产品。我们反思了现场实验室研究人员在这种敏感环境中执行和运营现场实验室的经验和见解。我们的研究结果表明，现场实验室可用于对产品进行现场评估，需要灵活性才能在具有不同利益相关者组成和专业知识的各种护理环境中采用现场实验室，现场实验室研究人员作为患有痴呆症的人与公司之间的联系纽带和缓冲器，从而支持技术产品的采用。我们最后提出了一些最佳实践建议，以鼓励在痴呆症背景下的现场实验室中具有包容性和可扩展性。
