E-health

Europe’s population is growing older, leading us into many societal challenges which those changes are bringing. In the future there will be higher absolute numbers of elderly people, a larger share of elderly and longer healthy life expectancies. International Thematic Workshop on home care R&I organized on 27th January 2017 in Funchal (Madeira) offered many opportunities to exchange experiences and good practices from the field of innovative solutions for home care. More than 100 participantsattended the event which was organized by Business Development Institute of the Autonomous Region of Madeira (IDERAM).

The workshop was part of European project “HoCare” which deals with the issues of ageing population and focuses on boosting creation of innovative solutions for home care through quadruple-helix cooperation. Partners from Portugal, Cyprus, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania, Lithuania, Hungary, and the Czech Republic attended the event bringing with them also the relevant stakeholders from the field of home care. Current situations regarding home care research and innovation support and good practices from participating countries were presented at the workshop. 3 interactive working groups enabled discussions on possibilities for transferability of good practise projects or management / strategic focus of Operational programmes. The focus was especially on generation of innovation in home care by addressing unmet needs identified by formal and informal providers of health care.

November and December 2016 signalled 2 significant steps for DEX Innovation Centre in the development of the SMART4MD application for patients with mild dementia – a test of the developed clickable prototype among target groups and the ethical approval of trial of the application on real patients and carers.

European project for cooperation on innovative solutions for Home Care

Partners from Cyprus, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania, Lithuania, Hungary, Portugal and Czech Republic have met on 2^nd project meeting within the HoCare project - “Delivery of Innovative solutions for Home Care by strengthening quadruple-helix cooperation in regional innovation chains”. The meeting took place in Varna, Bulgaria from 15^th -17^th September 2016 and was hosted by Business Agency Association from Varna.

European population is getting older which means that the number of people over 65 is increasing. Ageing trend presents numerous social changes and challenges, for which adequate solutions need to be found. At the same time it also means opportunity for growth and jobs as there is great potential to deliver innovative solution for home care.

8 partners from Cyprus, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania, Lithuania, Hungary, Portugal and Czech Republic have launched the HoCare project – “Delivery of Innovative solutions for Home Care by strengthening quadruple-helix cooperation in regional innovation chains”. The partnership is led by the Nicosia Development Agency (ANEL) from Cyprus.

DEX Innovation Centre is proud to present the official logo of the SMART4MD project. The logo reflects the topic of the project - Support, Monitoring and Reminder Technology for Mild Dementia.

Project SMART4MD has successfully finished the first phase of user-centric research that included interviews with healthcare professionals and focus groups with people with memory/mild dementia problems and their carers.

During January 2016, DEX Innovation Centre carried out successfully a research in Liberec and Prague among patients with memory problems, their carers and healthcare professionals. The research, undertaken via focus group and individual interviews, was carried our under the SMART4MD project