The project “Digital Transformation of Healthcare Provision in Rural Areas”, funded by the State of Lower Saxony as part of the ‘zukunft.niedersachsen’ initiative, (TransVer) examines the ongoing structural transformation of healthcare provision in rural areas, using the example of the conversion of hospitals into regional healthcare centres (RVZ) and the strengthening of centralised and digitised healthcare structures.

This joint project brings together perspectives from the medical and health sciences, Computing Science and engineering, as well as the social sciences, in order to provide scientific support for this process of change and to help develop new medical and technical solutions that enable modern, local healthcare provision. This also includes the question of how existing hospital sites can be put to good use – for example, through digital assistance systems or new local healthcare services. There is a particular focus on two clinical conditions: Parkinson’s disease and acute abdominal symptoms. Both are representative of very different approaches to diagnosis, treatment and aftercare. Together with patients and specialists, new, digital and networked treatment pathways are to be developed, tested and evaluated.

The transformation of healthcare is not only viewed from a technical and medical perspective, but is analysed as a social transformation process with far-reaching societal and organisational prerequisites and implications. Through the broad participation of members of the public, healthcare professionals, administrative authorities, funding bodies and the researchers involved in the joint project, the project aims to contribute to the negotiation and development of needs-based and innovative forms of healthcare provision across the board.

Our working group’s sub-project focuses on analysing the ongoing socio-technical transformation of healthcare provision across the region and the associated organisational restructuring processes.

Based on qualitative interview studies, the social and organisational dynamics of the digitalisation and centralisation of medical care are examined in the context of the establishment of Regional Care Centres (RVZ). For example, the project analyses how digital and centralised forms of healthcare are altering processes, responsibilities and hierarchies between different employment and status groups within healthcare units, and how the stakeholders and professions involved are shaping the transformation process within the specific organisational framework.