Digital assistants accompany patients back to their home: international research group of “vCare” under the management of TU Dresden is testing tomorrow´s rehabilitation.

Currently, more than one third among the over 75s Europeans suffer physical impairments, caused by life-style diseases such as cardiovascular diseases. Suffering a stroke or heart attack has a deep impact on the daily lifes of the personally affected ones. After their first acute in-patient hospital stay, most patients rely on a longer, individually designed rehabilitation phase, especially when they return home. To reduce the risk of relapse and being able to live self-determined, an active and motivated change of affected patients´ lifestyle is necessary. Many affected people find that the adaption of dietary habits, smoking cessation or enhancement of more everyday physical activity, is very challenging.

With an international team of researchers under the leadership of experienced scientists of the TU Dresden, the EU-funded project “vCare” investigates how data from the living environment, appropriate health information and a regular interaction with the affected patients can be linked intelligently to design a personalised transition from rehabilitation into home environment.

The aim of this project is to improve the continuity of care, to prevent the disruption of monitoring in the home environment and to test future technologies in practice. Objective of “vCare” is therefore to develop a virtual coach, that assists, advises and motivates the patients according to his/her personal needs and skills.

The European Union supports the development and testing of the solution in four different European regions for the next four years with 4 million EUR.

Project title: Virtual Coaching Activities for Rehabilitation in Elderly (vCare)

Term: 01.09.2017-31.08.2021

Amount of funding:4.044 Mio €
Funding body: EU Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, funding programme “Personal coaching for well-being and care of people as the age”

Partner:

• Technische Universität Dresden, Chair of Wirtschaftsinformatik, esp. Systems Development (TUD), Germany
• Stiftung FZI, Forschungszentrum Informatik am Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (FZI), Germany
• Casa di Cura Privata del Policlinico Spa (CCP), Milan, Italy
• Imaginary SRL (IMA), Milan, Italy
• AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH (AIT), Vienna, Austria
• TSB Real Time Location Systems SL (MYS), Valencia, Spain
• Servicio Vasco de Salud Osakidetza (OSA), Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain
• Siveco Romania SA (SIV), Bucharest, Romania
• Universitatea de Medicina si Farmacie “Carol Davila” din Bucuresti (UMFCD), Bucharest, Romania
• Aarhus Universitet (AU), Aarhus, Denmark
• Innovation Sprint (iSPRINT), Brussels, Belgium
• European Health Telematics Association (EHTEL), Brussels, Belgium

UMPCD Partner coordinator: Prof Crina Sinescu MD

E-Mail: crina.sinescu@umfcd.ro

UMPCD Press contact:Stefan Busnatu MD

E-Mail: stefan.busnatu@umfcd.ro

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 769807.