Transforming Elderly Healthcare: Innovating to enhance health and quality of life in collaboration with older adults at Consorci Sanitari Integral (CSI)
Within the framework of the European eCARE project, Consorci Sanitari Integral (CSI) is committed to adopting and integrating digital solutions that facilitate healthcare management, promote patient autonomy, and improve quality of life, with a special focus on the elderly population. The incorporation of innovative technologies is crucial to address the challenges of modern health and social care.
Objectives of the eCARE Project at CSI
1. Detection and Comprehensive Management of Frailty: Implement innovative digital solutions that enable a swift and comprehensive geriatric assessment, facilitating the early detection of frailty and pre-frailty in older adults. These solutions must be user-friendly and accessible, enhancing care integration and improving patients’ quality of life.
2. Shared Care Planning: Collaborate in the creation of multidisciplinary interventions and integrated, personalized care plans. This holistic, user-centered approach ensures that interventions are tailored to individual needs, promoting continuous and efficient care.
3. Promotion of Patient Autonomy: Utilize digital tools that empower patients to manage their own health. These tools must bridge the digital divide and enhance digital literacy, enabling patients to actively participate in their care through accessible and configurable technologies.
4. Improvement of Healthcare Efficiency: Explore systems and technologies that reduce the workload of healthcare professionals by facilitating data collection and analysis. These innovations should enhance the integration and coordination of health and social services, optimising communication and information exchange.
5. Attention to Psychological and Social Aspects: Develop multimodal and multidimensional interventions that address both physical conditions and psycho-emotional and psychosocial factors such as loneliness and isolation. These interventions must be accessible and sustainable, ensuring comprehensive and patient-centred care.
Pilot Study Results
The final phase of the eCARE project consisted of a six-week pilot study at the Sagrada Familia Primary Care Centre of CSI. During this period, real users and healthcare professionals tested two digital solutions developed by TELEVES and EVIDENZE.
- Positive Aspects: The digital solutions excelled in integrating agile systems for detecting frailty and pre-frailty, features for shared care planning, preventive alerts, and physical activity programmes such as the validated Vivifrail multi-component exercise programme for frail and pre-frail patients. Additionally, high user satisfaction with the tools’ interface was evident.
- Limitations: Several limitations were identified, such as insufficient adaptation of educational materials for users with low digital literacy, affecting adherence to the applications. The low participation of caregivers and high dependence on information input by healthcare professionals limited the comprehensive evaluation of the solutions. Furthermore, the short duration of the pilot prevented an exhaustive assessment of all functionalities and testing of interoperability with local systems.
Lessons Learned
The pilot study has highlighted the importance of appropriate and adapted training for users and professionals. Despite the limitations, both TELEVES and EVIDENZE have demonstrated potential in developing digital solutions for detecting and managing frailty and shared care management. The qualitative and quantitative results of the pilot study are being analyzed and will serve as the basis for future improvements and larger-scale implementation of these technologies, aiming to continue improving the quality of life for older adults through innovative digital solutions.”
