Swelife has developed and works according to the Healthy-Risk-Sick model.
The purpose of the Healthy-Risk-Sick model is to describe the individual’s health journey through all parts. Most of the time we are healthy, or experience good health. Sometimes, for one reason or another, we have an increased risk of physical or mental illness and can then benefit from new diagnostics for early detection.
In the best case, we can return to good health with the help of adequate lifestyle solutions and, if necessary, technical solutions, preventive or palliative medicines. Not everything is possible to prevent, and if we get sick, we can hopefully with the help of good care and treatment regain health, or at least not experience ill health.
Today’s research – tomorrow’s standard treatment
Today’s care is yesterday’s research and today’s research is tomorrow’s standard treatments. Sweden today has a healthcare system of high international quality. At the same time, the entire health care system is undergoing major change, not least through increased opportunities for individualized care.
The concept of precision medicine is used as a tool in personalized care. Precision medicine involves diagnostics and treatment that is adapted to the individual and aims to increase accuracy in the promotion, prevention, diagnostic, treatment and rehabilitation efforts. This change complements and challenges prevailing working methods, priorities and structures and creates new needs as the implementation of innovations requires, among other things, new skills, new leadership, time and resources.
Health is built on several components
Through early diagnosis, the opportunities to prevent or alleviate diseases increase, but health is built up of several different components, where behavior and lifestyle are by far the most important part, followed by our individual conditions (heritage and environment). Health care is thus necessary but not sufficient to achieve good health.
According to the World Health Organization WHO, it is clear that preventive measures are needed to ensure a sustainable health care system and to ensure the health of the population. The WHO estimates in these calculations that at least 80 percent of all cardiovascular disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes as well as a third of all cancers can be prevented, but data from the OECD show that affected countries in 2017 invested an average of only 2.8 percent of the health care’s total budget in preventive measures against disease and ill health (3.3 per cent for Sweden).
Based on data
The transition to more individualized health, care and nursing is based on data, something we generate all the way along our health journey. We can contribute with self-care data, perhaps from a smartwatch or through other data that we collect, such as blood sugar measurements at home or diary information about, for example, stiffness and fatigue.
Another major source of data is, of course, healthcare data, which accounts for the majority of data when we have an increased risk of ill health or are ill, for example through medical records systems, and various test results. It is therefore important to look at all parts of the model to ensure good health. Swelife uses the Healthy-Risk-Sick model to visualize and discuss where we put our resources.
Download Healthy-Risk-Sick
Feel free to use the Healthy-Risk-Sick concept yourself! To make it easier for you to get started, we have made a package with powerpoints and pictures in png format. Also available in psd format if you want to change colors and fonts yourself.
Here you can download the package.
More reading
Socialstyrelsen: Möjligheter och hinder för innovation i vård och omsorg
The New England Journal of Medicine: We Can Do Better — Improving the Health of the American People
WHO: Prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases in the European Region: a progress report