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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - REACH2020 (Responsive Engagement of the Elderly promoting Activity and Customized Healthcare)

Teaser

Summary

The health expenditure in the EU is expected to rise by 350% by 2050 compared to an economic expansion of only 180% and The Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs notes that, in particular, the increase of chronic diseases and the provision of Long Term Care (LTC) will pose an increasing challenge to the sustainability of public finances in the EU, due to an ageing population. REACH therefore represents a solution that seeks to prevent older citizens from loss of function and decline as a major cause of physical inactivity.

The REACH system turns clinical and care environments such as homes and everyday life, day care centres and other geriatric facilities into highly personalised and data-driven early intervention systems that engage older persons in preventative and rehabilitative activity (primarily physical activity but also with regard to cognitive, mobility, social and nutritional aspects). REACH achieves its objectives through an integrated sensing-monitoring-intervention chain that is exemplarily and iteratively adapted in the project to the ecosystems of a series of care settings for older persons (represented exemplarily through four different use case settings). REACH implements, demonstrates and tests through four â€œTouchpointsâ€ (each tailored to a specific user group) several instances of this chain. The REACH Touchpoints and Engine concept and the REACH toolkit represent the REACH system architecture binding together individual developments around the Touchpoints.

A unique feature of REACH is the integrated utilisation of personalised behaviour change and engagement techniques informing the development of the toolkit elements (sensors, interfaces, devices, etc.). REACH implements a combination of wearable and ambient sensors for each Touchpoint along with a set of co-adapted Machine Learning elements. Personalised Intelligent Interior Units (PIÂ²Us) are used to seamlessly integrate the above described functional elements into daily life in the different target use case settings.

REACH will create new market opportunities for European industry including SMEs to capitalise on European high-tech-knowhow, to make Europe a market leader in prevention technologies and at the same time tackle the ultimate cause of rising healthcare expenditures. REACH expressively engineers acceptability features (privacy, ethics, legal, accessibility dimensions) into its solutions that ensure viability (e.g. in the context of the GDPR), trust by end-users and society and a branding as being a European way.

Work performed

In terms of work carried out towards the objectives specified in the Draft of Action (DoA), timing, task completion, deliverables submission and achievements of milestones, communication/dissemination and KPIs, REACH progressed in reporting period 2 fully according to schedule.

We have in Reporting Period 2 detailed and clarified the medical and geriatric goals and hypotheses for the overall REACH system as well as for each individual Touchpoint. These hypotheses have guided the transferal and integration of the REACH system elements into the ecosystems of the four REACH use case settings (Lyngby, ZZ, SK, HUG) as well as associated testing activities. In accordance with this, we also have defined Categories of Early Detection (CEDs) and applied a minimum level of standardisation with regard to testing (study designs, outcome measures, etc.) in the Touchpoints and studies.

We have further detailed the Touchpoints and Engine (TPs&E) concept. Specifically, we have developed the REACH toolkit as a common denominator of the technical and economic side of REACH. Following the development of an in-depth understanding of the four use case settings we have specified and detailed in a systematic manner the types of analytics and Machine Learning (ML) techniques to be used in each Touchpoint. Furthermore, we have translated theoretical concepts of user acceptance, behaviour change and digital engagement into concrete techniques, detailed the behaviour change regimes for each Touchpoint, and developed a REACH specific design process for personalised behaviour change settings. We have detailed and concretised the concept of Personalised Intelligent Interior Units (PIÂ²Us), detailed their design, created first mock-ups of the most important ones and used them as part of demonstration and testing activities. Accordingly, we have detailed the REACH data platform approach in light of the Touchpoint and Engines concept and the REACH toolkit.

We have conducted a formalisation of the testing results and made the outcomes comparable, developed a methodological classification and made a first attempt to interpret our findings. In light of this, the consortium has detailed in a co-adapting manner value propositions, business strategy, business models, stakeholder networks, IP and innovation management aspects, and created a series of seven new business opportunities. In addition, consortium carried out a multitude of standardisation activities which made standardisation an inherent part of the consortiums works and established a considerable standing of REACH both in the European and the worldwide standardisation filed.

Final results

REACH started to make progress beyond the state of the art in several areas as per the DoA. The current, most important breakthroughs are the following:

1. Detailing of a unique REACH Sensing-Monitoring-Intervention activity flow and the creation of tailor-made instantiations for each of the four major REACH Touchpoints.
2. Demonstration of the effectiveness of life integrated and target orientated gamified training with technologically enhanced artefacts that also serve as geriatric performance assessment tools throughout Touchpoints.
3. Development of a REACH specific design process for personalised behaviour change settings and application of this process to the design of a variety of REACH system elements.
4. Development and detailing of novel sensing Body Area Networks (wearable and ambient sensors) together with a Human Activity Recognition chain for early intervention and rehabilitation guidance.
5. Testing and fine tuning of a set of supervised and un-supervised Machine Learning Methods across the four Touchpoints.
6. Prototyping of Personalised Intelligent Interior Units (PIÂ²Us), a set of smart modular furniture elements that serve as physical carrier elements of REACH functionality.
7. Creation of seven business opportunities through the bottom up development of novel business strategies in the Touchpoints.

With the current breakthroughs, REACH shows that, as originally foreseen, it will have an impact with respect to:

a) technological innovation (e.g. through novel sensing and data analytics approaches)
b) benefits for older persons (e.g. earlier and more personalised and fun engagement in physical activity)
c) care system (e.g. the REACH system will enhance the productivity and effectiveness of monitoring and the provision of interventions through empowering older persons and make physical activation more safe)
d) industrial growth and competitiveness (e.g. each Touchpoint adds value to a central product, e.g. a walker or bed, by turning it into a complex Product-Service-System with much higher value creation potential)