Context: an ageing society
Longevity is one of the biggest achievements of modern societies. In fact, Children born after 2011 have a one in three chances of reaching their 100th birthday. By 2020, a quarter of Europeans will be over 60 years of age. Combined with low birth rates, this will bring about significant changes to the structure of European society.
In this regard, population ageing has profound implications for the planning and delivery of health and social care. EU spending on medical care is currently growing faster than GDP. According to the 2015 Ageing Report, the total ageing costs in the euro area are projected to increase by 1.5 percentage points of GDP, from 26.8% in 2013 to 28.3% in 2060.
Despite the life expectancy rise, the quality of life in these latest years may be poorer due to frailty and long-term conditions, with the consequent burden and negative impact on health and care systems.
Indeed, the most problematic expression of population ageing is the clinical condition of frailty declining in multiple physiological systems, which collectively result in an increased vulnerability to sudden health status changes triggered by relatively minor stressor events.
While frailty increases, the average amount of health spending increases as well with the frailty level in a range from 1,500 to 5,000 €/person year, depending upon the frailty status and the setting of care.
Integrated care offers perhaps the greatest opportunity for preserving function in late ageing
But frailty does not occur in silos; it usually comes along associated with another risk facto; loneliness. Older people who experience important levels of loneliness are at increased risk of becoming physically frail. Then, ageing, frailty and loneliness constitute overlapping conditions submitted to multiple health and care interventions. Research experiences suggest that frailty can be considered a malleable and manageable condition, and therefore, there may be opportunities along its pathway to halt, reverse, manage and/or prevent its adverse consequences and worsening.
Our goal
The objective of eCare is to launch a Pre-Commercial Procurement call for tender to deliver disruptive digital solutions for the prevention and comprehensive management of frailty to encourage independent living, wellbeing and to relieve health and care services budget pressure.
The project will procure the development, testing and implementation of digital tools/services and communication concepts to facilitate the transition to integrated care models across health and social services.
Specific objetives
· Promote systematic routine screening for pre-frailty stages in at risk patients and older adults in clinical practice.
· Develop and implement sustainable multimodal interventions for the prevention and comprehensive management of functional and cognitive decline and psychosocial frailty.
· Manage functional decline and frailty through multidimensional targeted intervention.
· Contribute to integrated pathways of care with better informed, prepared and trained workforce.
· Convey the shift to patient-centric intervention strategies to ensure engagement and technology acceptance for the promotion of independent living in frailty prevention and management.
· Contribute to research and methodology on frailty and active and healthy ageing. Contribute to managing demand and increasing the sustainability of health and social.
· Promote cooperation, including cross-sector international collaboration between university research groups, health and social care stakeholders, municipalities, and companies dedicated to ageing issues.
Our target
The target group are the pre-frail/frail old adults with emphasis on those that feel lonely and/or isolated.
What is Pre-Commercial Procurement?
Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) is the procurement of research and development of new innovative solutions before they are commercially available. PCP involves different suppliers competing through different phases of development. The risks and benefits are shared between the procurers and the suppliers under market conditions.We invite you to know more about the eCare phases here!
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