The DigiCare App

Better health for caregivers

Niels Heuer - DigiRehab

Who are you and what do you do at DigiRehab?
My name is Niels Heuer, I am co-founder and CEO of DigiRehab A/S in Denmark.

For more than 10 years, I have been working with a group of physiotherapists and sports scientists to develop solutions to design individualised exercises and tailor-made trainings for different target groups.

In particular, we have developed solutions for seniors who are in home care or live in nursing homes, to support both the people being cared for and the care workers. Our vision is to promote physical training for all, as it is never too late for targeted training.

Why are we working with the Korian Foundation on this project?
By using our DigiRehab solution, caregivers and patients get closer to each other. According to the motto "With each other / For each other" studies in Denmark have shown that the caregivers themselves become fitter indirectly through training with the patients and also learn more about the topics of movement and mobility. With this project, we want to directly address the caregivers/employees in order to motivate this target group with a low-threshold solution to actively promote their own health. The direct cooperation with the Korian facilities offers us the possibility to involve the management and the employees in the development and thus to create the best possible offer. 

In your view, what are the most important contents and objectives of the programme?
For us, it is important to understand the perspective of the staff and to include that in the design of the program from the very beginning. For this purpose, it is important to accept the special features of the caring profession and to prepare the services in a targeted and not broadly directed way. We want to create a really suitable offer through a mixture of the topics of exercise, nutrition and mental health, which helps especially those employees who have not been able to get active for their health so far. From our point of view, the most important goals are regular small activities and a changed mindset on the topic of health.

Astrid Salomon - mkk – meine Krankenkasse

Who are you and what do you do at mkk – meine Krankenkasse?
My name is Astrid Salomon, I work for the insurance company mkk – meine Krankenkasse as an advisor for the field of prevention. Promoting health within the framework of the legal requirements has been my passion for many years. In doing so, the benefit for people is always in the focus for me: How do the measures actually help, how effective are they and what can be improved? There are a multitude of legal possibilities to promote health, but these are still underused in my view.

Why are we working with the Korian Foundation on this project?

The experience in the field of digital health promotion of DigiRehab from Denmark convinced us from the beginning. We were enthusiastic about the focus on employees and the involvement of the employees in the project from the very beginning. Only they know exactly what they need and what is realistic in their daily work. Through the interaction of the Korian Foundation, DigiRehab GmbH and us as mkk – meine Krankenkasse, we hope for a much more customized and effective digital tool than is currently available on the market.

In your view, what are the most important contents and goals of the program?

In Germany, we have not so much a knowledge problem than an implementation problem. Therefore, it is important to put motivation and communication in the foreground, as it is focused on in this program. In my opinion, the most important approach is to constantly raise the issue of health in small steps in order to encourage employees to decide to do more for themselves and their health!

Carola Seeberger - Korian Deutschland AG

Carola Seeberger, regional manager of Korian in North Rhine-Westphalia, also supports the project, in which four Korian Deutschland AG facilities located in the NRW region are participating:

Who are you and what do you do at Korian Deutschland AG?
I have been working in inpatient care for over 30 years. An important aspect for me is always and has always been that our staff and residents are the centre of attention. I am a care specialist and successfully completed my studies in Cologne at the Catholic University of Applied Sciences as a certified care manager. I have been with the company for 17 years and have been managing the NRW region in the function of operational manager for over 7 years. There are 55 locations in the region.

In your view, what are the most important contents and goals of the program?
The project is an opportunity for the employees and the company as a whole to promote and maintain the health of everyone working in the company. The employees are at the center and are actively involved in the development of a software for occupational health management.

In my function as CEO, this represents a criterion of the duty of care towards the employees and is a social mandate.