In this ACE pilot, Zorggroep Orion (Belgium), supported by LiCalab, explores how digital tools and smart technologies can enhance care delivery while maintaining a strong human connection.
What does good care look like in a future shaped by technology?
In this ACE pilot, Zorggroep Orion (Belgium), supported by LiCalab, explores how digital tools and smart technologies can enhance care delivery while maintaining a strong human connection.
The pilot highlights how care organisations are already integrating technology into daily practice — not as a replacement for care professionals, but as a way to support them.
At Zorggroep Orion, several solutions are being tested and implemented, including:
- Smart sensors in mattresses to support monitoring and improve response times
- Communication tools connecting care staff with families and informal caregivers
- Virtual reality (VR) applications for training staff, particularly in understanding dementia
- Smart incontinence solutions that help optimise care interventions
- Emerging opportunities around the use of AI in care
These technologies help care professionals work more efficiently and detect issues earlier. At the same time, the pilot emphasises a key principle: technology must always support — not replace — the personal relationship between caregiver and patient.
As one care professional highlights, maintaining human contact is essential to prevent isolation and ensure quality of care.
The pilot also reflects a broader reality across the sector: while technology plays an increasing role, care will always remain a people-driven field. Innovation must therefore go hand in hand with organisational adaptation, training, and a continued focus on meaningful human interaction.
Through initiatives like this, ACE is helping to define the future of care — where technology and human-centered practice evolve together.