The project NextCare brings together hospitals, local authorities, patient organisations across the Baltic Sea region to help rural healthcare systems safely implement AI-supported home care solutions, improving access to healthcare, patient wellbeing and the resilience of health services.

NextCare @ Home is a transnational project focused on accelerating the safe and effective implementation of AI solutions in integrated healthcare, with a particular focus on rural areas across the Baltic Sea Region. The project brings together hospitals, public authorities, patient organisations, business support organisations and academia from Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Latvia and Poland.

Rather than developing new AI technologies from scratch, NextCare uses real healthcare use cases to understand how existing AI solutions can be successfully introduced, adapted and scaled in different healthcare systems. The key project outcome will be a practical Implementation Guide for AI solutions in rural integrated healthcare, providing methods, tools and recommendations that healthcare organisations can use when introducing AI-supported services closer to patients’ homes.

Healthcare systems are under growing pressure from ageing populations, increasing numbers of people with chronic conditions, staff shortages and limited resources. These challenges are particularly severe in rural areas, where patients often face longer distances to healthcare providers, fewer specialists and weaker infrastructure.

At the same time, many promising AI solutions already exist, but their implementation in everyday healthcare remains limited. The main barriers are not only technological: they include legal and regulatory requirements, fragmented data sharing, lack of competences, organisational differences, limited digital readiness and concerns about trust, privacy and acceptance of AI.

NextCare therefore responds to an implementation gap: healthcare organisations need a practical and transferable way to move from promising AI pilots to solutions that can actually be integrated into real healthcare pathways, particularly in rural and home-based care settings. The project assessment also identifies this transition from hospital-based services towards care closer to patients’ homes as a central challenge addressed by the project.

The overarching objective of NextCare is to enhance accessibility to healthcare services in rural areas through the adoption of AI solutions.

More specifically, the project aims to:

• use digital technologies to improve the quality and efficiency of public healthcare services;

• strengthen cross-sectoral cooperation between hospitals, local authorities, patient organisations and other stakeholders;

• help healthcare providers tailor services more effectively to citizens’ individual needs;

• reduce inequalities in access to healthcare between urban and rural areas.

The main expected result is a practical and transferable Implementation Guide for AI solutions in rural integrated healthcare that organisations can use when introducing either self-developed or procured AI solutions. It will provide a common implementation methodology, identify critical steps and responsibilities, and incorporate lessons from real-life pilots.

The project also plans to deliver a best-practice guide based on the initial use cases, an impact report from the transnational piloting process, one jointly developed pilot action and one jointly developed solution. The indicator framework targets 12 organisations cooperating across borders and 31 organisations with increased institutional capacity as a result of the cooperation.

For wider uptake, the project plans to engage at least 18 municipalities, 10 hospitals, 4 NGOs and 8 business support organisations in activities supporting the application or adaptation of the guide.