Unique procurement completed – Virotea creates virtual care training

The very first procurement in DigitalWell Arena’s demand accelerator has been completed. For Karlstad Municipality, this means access to a new virtual training tool that can increase staff understanding in challenging care situations.

In the end, it was Virotea’s concept that best matched the needs of the Health and Social Care Unit. The purpose of the procurement was to create a new digital service that increases care staff’s understanding of cognitive impairment within LSS and elderly care. Cognitive impairment is an umbrella term for symptom profiles involving a decline in cognitive ability, including dementia.

– The big difference is that staff no longer have to imagine what we are talking about – instead they get a real and more concrete experience. We got everything we wished for, and it is the kind of experience that gives you goosebumps, says Maria Andersson, Cognition Representative in Karlstad Municipality, who together with colleague Magdalena Swierczek represented the organisation’s needs in the procurement.

They believe Virotea’s digital service also offers the opportunity to create a more consistent level of knowledge.

– This service means we can work method-based rather than person-dependent – it must work equally well regardless of who comes to the workplace, says Magdalena Swierczek.

Magdalena Swierczek and Maria Andersson believe the new service will increase understanding of clients’ needs.

Virotea’s service uses VR (Virtual Reality) to visualise various everyday situations where it can be difficult to understand the clients’ perspective. The virtual experience affects staff through both visual and auditory impressions – for example, through an inner voice, everyday sounds that grow in intensity, or a visual field that becomes tinted or blurred. Together, this creates an experience that is both disorienting and uncomfortable.

Provides pedagogical guidance

The film scenarios shown are followed by an educational component designed by the Health and Social Care Unit, where staff gain knowledge of how to best interact with the client. This includes handling situations related to delusions, perception of time, or where a particular environment creates challenges.

– This experience should contribute to strong empathy, increased understanding, and better interactions – complemented by pedagogical knowledge, says Ivan Perlesi, CEO of Virotea, who emphasises that it is not possible to know exactly how clients experience reality.

He has many years of experience working within LSS and knows it can be difficult to read clients without a deeper understanding.

– It can be about small things where you think you are doing the right thing, but still get a plate thrown at your head. I would never have seen this need if I had not worked within LSS – the film scenarios we show are things I experienced daily.

Virotea has previously created VR services that contribute to a meaningful everyday life for clients, such as guided tours. Ivan Perlesi believes this has provided important insights for the new service as well.

Seven companies involved in the innovation process

Initially, seven companies were procured to participate in the innovation process. The companies then met with representatives from the Health and Social Care Unit and the demand accelerator team to present their concept proposals in more detail. Three companies were selected to continue the development work, before the final choice fell on Virotea’s concept.

A prerequisite for procurements carried out through DigitalWell Arena’s demand accelerator is that there is market potential linked to the need. This means that the services and products developed need to be scalable and able to spread to more customers. The companies therefore received support from DigitalWell GovTech Incubator, including help in developing their business models and connecting with other municipalities to get to know the market.

A setup designed to benefit pilot customers

The aim is to benefit both the companies, which gain a larger market, and the first customer in the public sector, which does not have to bear the development cost alone. Several other customers have already expressed interest in Virotea’s service, which will be available in the autumn.

– The service would definitely have been more expensive if we had developed it exclusively for Karlstad Municipality. In a traditional procurement, the question is usually what does it cost and what can we deliver. In this case, no one knew from day one exactly what it would become – we developed it together with the municipality. That minimises the risk of buying something that in the end is not at all what you had in mind, says Ivan Perlesi.

He also sees great value simply in participating in the process, and Virotea would have continued developing the service even if they had not received the final contract. The fact that all companies that participated in the innovation process received some compensation is also of great significance, Ivan Perlesi believes.

– The money is a sign of commitment – that the client is serious and that it is not just an inspiration exercise.

• Here you can find more information about the procurement and the methodology in DigitalWell’s Demand Accelerator.