On 21 March 2018 a new European Commission study titled “Impact of EU-Funded Research and Innovation on ICT for Active and Health Ageing – The Top 25 Most Influential Projects” was published. The study lists CareWell and BeyondSilos among the 25 projects selected.
The study identified and compiled the key results from projects on ICT for Active and Healthy Ageing funded under the Framework Programme 7 (FP7), the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP), and the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme. Pooling together all relevant projects in the three programmes, the study selected an initial knowledge base of 58 projects which was further narrowed down to 40. Five broad main impact areas (Improved quality of life, Increased efficiency of health and long-term care, Market growth and expansion of the EU industry, Dissemination and engagement opportunities, Project sustainability) were considered in the evaluation of the key results of the 40 projects, which were divided into six thematic categories (Robotics, innovating elderly care, integrated care, frailty, fall prevention, knowledge sharing and standardisation). As a result of this in-depth analysis, 25 projects were highlighted as having had the highest impact, among them BeyondSilos and CareWell, two integrated care projects empirica participated in as consortium member.
CareWell’s achievements in terms of improving patients’ quality of life through the development of concepts for detection of age-related risks were underlined. The study also pointed out that CareWell significantly contributed to increasing the efficiency of health and long-term care service provision. The project was evaluated positively for facilitating the wide implementation of sustainable innovation services. Furthermore, the study noted that the project contributed to the long-term sustainability of regional healthcare systems in Europe as well as provided evidence for a replicable plan for a pan-European deployment of integrated care. Another noteworthy result from CareWell consisted in the evidence of reduced hospitalisation lengths among patients who received the intervention. With regard to the impact area of dissemination and engagement opportunities, CareWell’s strategy of result dissemination and stakeholder engagement was commended as particularly effective.
BeyondSilos was also included among the projects with the highest impact on increasing the efficiency of health and long-term care. The use of the MAFEIP tool in support of the BeyondSilos project was emphasized in the study, showcasing to the positive outcome of the use case, namely that the BeyondSilos intervention is more effective than usual care. Both CareWell and BeyondSilos were rated highly for achievements in the area of project sustainability. The fact that the two projects created synergies together with the third integrated care sister project SmartCare through mutual mentoring and knowledge sharing activities, was praised.
The study also highlighted the use of the ASSIST: Assessment and evaluation tool for e-service deployment in health, care and ageing, developed by empirica, which was employed to analyse costs and benefits of both BeyondSilos and CareWell services. As a consortium member of the integrated care sister projects CareWell and BeyondSilos, empirica was responsible for the exploitation and dissemination tasks. The projects piloted integrated care services in a total of 13 European regions and presented their results at the Joint Final Conference on ICT enabled Integrated Care Delivery”.
The full study, executive summary, annexes and brochure showcasing the key findings of each of the selected 25 projects are available here.
More information about BeyondSilos and CareWell and the ASSIST tool is available on the project websites:
http://www.carewell-project.eu/home.html
http://beyondsilos.eu/home.html
http://assist.empirica.biz/home.html
