This is a presentation about our research on call centers and how they are used in telecare. I held the presentation for the course in collaboration technology that prof. Monica Divitini teaches at NTNU.

1. Call centers and telecare
Requirements for ICT tools for operators
Babak.Farshchian@sintef.no

2. Telecare: Why now?
• Increasing amount of elderly now due to after-
WWII baby boomer generation.
• Increasing costs of healthcare systems due to
changing demographics and chronic diseases.
• Institutionalization costs a lot of money!
• …and, most elderly prefer to live
independently.

3. The feeling of safety at home
• Telecare works best when
people feel safe at home.
• Safety is a subjective feeling.
• The role of care staff.
• The role of technology.

4. Ambulance
service
Emergency
Clinic
(EC)
Safety
Patrol
(SP)
Home care
(HC)
Informal
caregivers
(IC)
Increased urgency/Reduced response time
healthsafetycare
How we take care of our elderly
Helsevakta
(Health watch)
Primary care Specialist care
Hospital

5. Increasing use of technology at home

6. Call centers: What are they?
• Service access points for many
companies.
• One of a large and growing set of
channels to communicate with clients.
• Can be inbound and outbound.

7. Efficiency and Taylorism
• Increase number of clients per call
handler.
• Decrease number of minutes per call.
• Standardized routines for handling calls.
• Combined with automation, robots.
• Being a call center operator is not a walk
in the park.

8. Call centers and telecare in Trondheim

9. How are call centers for telecare
different than conventional call
centers?
Research Question

10. Case study: Working with Helsevakta
• Plans to build a new call center for telecare and telemedicine in Trondheim.
• Merging of two departments, "Emergency clinics" and "Safety patrols".
• How will the ICT tools for
operators look like?
• Interviews.
• Observations.
• Co-design sessions.
• Post-project data analysis.

11. User interface designs
Triage sequence

12. User interface designs
Sensors at home

13. User interface designs
Fleet management

14. User interface designs
Mobile device concepts

15. Low-fidelity prototypes
Triage tool

16. Post-project analysis
• Interesting case because it compares:
• A conventional healthcare call center  Emergency clinic.
• A new type of telecare call center  Safety patrols.

17. Post-project analysis
Emergency clinics Safety patrols
Don't know the caller. Know the caller quite well.
Help in emergency life-saving situation. Help with day-to-day activities of living independently.
Help with emerging episodes of dangerous
situations.
Help with continuous development/co-production of
care and daily living.
Send me help now. Make me feel safe always.
Don't care about technology at home. Know a lot about technology at home, and operate
these.
Need support for triage tasks. Need support for caregiving tasks.
Need support for coordination with other units. Need support for coordination with other units, and
leading this coordination.

18. ICT tools for operators in telecare call centers
• Proactivity: Don't wait for elderly to call. Many elderly who need help will never call.
• Continuity: Continuously build knowledge about each caller. Use this knowledge to provide a
feeling of safety.
• Closer integration with homecare: Physical care needs to be integrated with "watching over."
• Technical control room: Need to think about how the growing number of technological devices
will be operated remotely.
• Command and control: Integrate with tools to allow efficient coordination with other units.

19. Thanks for your attention!
And question time.
www.sintef.no/sit