Smart Care in Smart Cities - Scenario Analysis for an Innovative Care Platform

In the context of a smart city, a holistic care platform could help to bring people with needs for assistance together with suitable service providers in a timely manner, as well as with people who share similar interests or medical conditions, for example. In addition to a professional network, a corresponding care platform could contribute to social exchange and thereby to strengthening social contacts. However, a care platform should not only focus on the younger relatives of persons with needs of assistance, as this can promote exclusion and a reduction in the independence of the persons concerned. Therefore, a care platform should also address persons with needs of assistance as well as their partners. To identify and describe these potential user groups of a holistic care platform, a scenario analysis was conducted. The result of the scenario analysis are six consistent and distinguishable scenarios. Each scenario represents a homogeneous group of persons with similar attributes, distinguishable from other scenarios.