[Joachim]

Good afternoon, I am opening a discussion with a rather ‘administrative’ than medical issue. You probably have heard about the European AAL funding  programme, aiming  to create better quality of life for older people and to strengthen industrial opportunities in the field of healthy ageing technology and innovation. However, it seems that few organisations in Europe are showing interest to this programme and many countries have already withdraw. Do you have any experience with this programme? Do you know if issues are more a matter of administration or of relevance of the use of technologies? 

[Sandra]

Dear Joachim, 

Our health research institute doesn’t have much experience with AAL programmes, but I think we definitively should take the leap and participate. In Spain, ageing and chronic diseases is a matter of great concern since our life expentancy keeps growing but also the number of people with multiple chronic diseases that affect their quality of life and have great impact on the economy and society as a whole.

I think right now we don’t have a technology problem but a usability problem. Usability is always important but especially for the elderly. We need to take advantage of all the IoT tools we have available right now to monitor and gather data of our patients without them needing to interact with the tools. This has to be done effortlessly. 

In addition to this, factors other than health must be taken into account that influence active ageing (mobility, socialization, purpose…) and use technology to tackle them. 

Best regards, 

Sandra Rueda Charro, MD

[Joachim]

Thank you for your prompt reply Sandra. I can only agree with what you said. An issue (probably the most important one) with the use of technologies by the elderly is their lack of interest to be trained with it. Many technological products developed during an AAL project did finally not manage to come on the market.

All in all, our organisation will be not be able to participate anymore in AAL calls. The Belgian funding agency is withdrawing from the program as of 2021. And I have heard that other countries will also do it.

Kind regards, JB

[Johannes]

Follow up question to the usability:

If the problem lies in the fact that elderly people have trouble with using it themselves – could new technology for the EMS personal help? – Interconnected IoT solutions and apps specifically designed for paramedics and hospital personnel, to enable them to “read” and work with patient data directly when needed?

Do you know of current developments in this regard?

Best,

Johannes

• This reply was modified 4 years, 7 months ago by  Johannes.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 7 months ago by  Johannes.

[Joachim]

I am able to reply to myself: there exists another program in the field called “More Years, better lives”. This Joint Programming is a new approach to foster collaboration and coordination in R&D in Europe. It is a member-states driven activity and seeks to enhance coordination and collaboration between European and national research programmes related to demographic change.

Areas affected by demographic change cover a wide range of research fields and policy topics ranging from health to social welfare, education & learning, work & productivity to housing, urban & rural development and mobility. The JPI “More Years, Better Lives” therefore follows a transnational, multi-disciplinary approach bringing together different research programmes and researchers from various disciplines in order to provide solutions for the upcoming challenges and make use of the potential of societal change in Europe. More information on https://www.jp-demographic.eu