Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ICT4Life (ICT services for Life Improvement For the Elderly)

Teaser

Almost 10 million Europeans live with Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and other dementias today. As a result of ageing, the number of people affected by one of those conditions is forecasted to double by 2030, making them major health challenges. Those people want to live at...

Summary

Almost 10 million Europeans live with Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and other dementias today. As a result of ageing, the number of people affected by one of those conditions is forecasted to double by 2030, making them major health challenges. Those people want to live at their own homes, but because of their symptoms, they face difficulties in their daily life both in managing their own care and in living independently.
Increased chronic conditions, multi-morbidity and ageing population of both workforce and patients pushed to the promotion of a new integrated care model both at the European and national levels. This model is highly supported by the development and deployment of innovative information and communication technologies (ICT) tools to improve and facilitate the quality and delivery of care in all health settings.
ICT4Life is a three-year project funded under Horizon 2020, the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, with the ambition of providing new services for integrated care employing user-friendly ICT tools, ultimately increasing patients’ quality of life and autonomy at home.
Conclusions of the Action:
ICT4Life has developed a modular Platform allowing the provision of six Cluster Services for integrated care adaptable to different end-users\' (patients, caregivers and health and professionals) needs. The Platform joins sensor-based monitoring of patient status and evolution and functionality services provided to all stakeholders involved in the care of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.
It relies on: new training models for the health/social care workforce and formal/informal caregivers; advanced multisensory-based analytics and integration with biomedical devices for patient activity and health status information; feedback-based decision-making engine to integrate patients and caregivers’ data; improved interaction mechanisms with interfaces through Smart TV, smartphones and desktop applications; knowledge creation on co-morbidities.
ICT4Life Platform has been validated in real scenarios in France, Hungary and Spain – with positive feedback among users confirming its value proposition to support integrated care.

Work performed

ICT4Life has held 9 Consortium meetings to coordinate the efforts required to fulfil the envisaged tasks of the project.
The analysis of end-users functional and technical requirements was completed in the first year considering both legal and ethical perspectives. The research methodology was based on patients’ diaries and on interviews with caregivers. Additionally, a Research Book for all involved countries has been created to gather information for data analysis.
Sensor data acquisition has been developed to detect abnormal behaviour, based on knowledge generated by data fusion techniques and machine learning. Decision support techniques have been implemented offering results to professionals and sending notifications.
The implementation of services for end-users has a strong focus on medication, training, social support and communication tools with the objective of:
• Supporting patients in their daily life at home through training, reminders, social services, personalised recommendations and communication with caregivers and professionals;
• Providing caregivers with patients’ updated information, focused training, risk and emergency alerts and communication with professionals and patients;
• Providing professionals with patients’ data evolution and alerts; strengthening care coordination and communication flows with caregivers and patients.
ICT4Life platform enables to access these services through personalised interfaces for mobile, web and Smart TV. It has been tested in three pilot sites (Hungary, France and Spain) in three different environments (home, day-care centre and rehabilitation centre) gathering results through the Research Book tools and targeted online surveys to end-users.
Overview of results:
ICT4Life platform development is based on the following principles: personalisation, flexibility, modularity, scalability, usability and accessibility. These principles address exploitation as the developed solutions can be adapted to diverse market needs and opportunities. ICT4Life can approach the market as a complete platform or with specific modules and functionalities to better respond to stakeholders’ needs.
Exploitation and Dissemination:
ICT4Life dissemination and exploitation of results contributed to creating an ecosystem gathering stakeholders of different background with the aim of fostering the interaction among them. ICT4Life focused on end-users’ engagement using tailored communication means and channels, that make the ICT4Life platform a reference in the European health sector. ICT4Life is committed with the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP on AHA). In this framework, ICT4Life has collaborated in a white paper providing recommendations on how to involve caregivers into the co-creation process. ICT4Life has been identified as a good-practice contributing to advancing the Europe leadership role in personalised services for integrated care. European health systems are diverse in terms of structure, governance, funding and provision of care. This diversity increases the complexity and requires a tailored approach to successfully exploit the technology in each region or country. The Platform has the flexibility and modularity to adapt the functionality and content to diverse market scenarios.

Final results

ICT4Life expected results and impact are focused on the quality of life improvement of patients and caregivers through tailored services and by supporting health and social professionals for integrated care coordination and management.
ICT4Life has devoted efforts in developing personalised services for end-users, ensuring their participation in the care process and promoting patient empowerment. Technology with reduced barriers is being developed for wide adoption. Therefore, ICT4Life is focusing on easy to use interfaces on Smart TV, smartphones and tablets.
The personalisation of the ICT4Life platform services requires that the system could adapt to different patient situations. ICT4Life multimodal fusion integrates patient’s sensor data and Electronic Health Record. Physical and digital behaviour contributes to this personalisation, together with the decision support functionality.
ICT4Life platform supports also the caregivers. In neurodegenerative diseases, such as dementia and Parkinson’s, the informal caregiver is often an old person who could suffer in turn from diseases. This fact is taken into account by ICT4Life, adequately integrating the needs of informal caregivers in the system. Additionally, ICT4Life aims at facilitating the integration of care and the coordination among health and social professionals. It facilitates cooperation on patients’ care and supports end-users’ involvement in the care process through communication functionality.
ICT4Life Platform supports the adoption of integrated care models. It enables real-time data tracking, information sharing, and communication among end-users It aims at promoting efficient, effective and inclusive care for Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and any other chronic disease.

Website & more info

More info: http://www.ict4life.eu.