MPOWER

‘This objective influences both organisational, reimbursement and technical issues. In this respect the project aims at the easiest part – the provision of technology that enables the other changes,’ the organisers explain. ‘The project surveys organisational and reimbursement issues – issues that need to be approached by every national and regional authority in near future.’ Dr Elly de Heus (above), of  the European Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (EAHSA) reports:

“In the MPOWER trials all professionals supporting older people, as well as non-professionals e.g. relatives, friends and neighbours, will be included in an integrated approach in which information is collected and shared on a need-to-know basis. The Proof-of-Concept applications will be tested in the project in Trondheim, Norway and Krakow, Poland. The project focuses on creating confidence for the older people as well as their relatives. Technology is utilised to support older people and help provide enhanced healthcare services. It includes:

• an individual (medical) plan for patients, which contains relevant information from all stakeholders, including medical information that can be shared between the different treatment and care providers
• communication technology including video-conference, chat and telephone, through TV, mobile phone and apartment communication system
• smart house technology, which helps the target groups to support themselves in daily life and will make it possible to grow older at home, rather than move to a care facility
• biosensors and patient questionnaires that provide the capability to continuously monitor the patient
• interoperable information communication between professional care providers that will relieve doctors in hospitals from routine procedures that could easily be done without seeing the patient in person.

MPOWER will deliver an open platform supporting rapid development and deployment of distributed integrated services for the target groups. For this platform - which features distributed and shared care - usability, security and interoperability is of central importance. Biosensors and smart house technologies are integrated; and structured mechanisms are provided for adapting to changes in user context in a distributed, mobile environment supporting various user contexts.
The project will promote the international use of the MPOWER framework through the European Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (EAHSA) in Brussels, in association with the International Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (IAHSA) in Washington DC, USA.”
Details:  Dr de Heus.
Phone:  00 31 55 576 62 44

Mpower partners
SINTEF ICT, SP Andersenv 15b, Trondheim,
N-7465, Norway (projectleader); Norwegian Centre for Dementia Research (NCDR); University of Krakow, Poland; University of Cyprus, Greece; DI, Spain; TBSOL, Spain; Ecomit, Spain; ARC Seibersdorf Research GmbH, Austria; Ericsson, Croatia; EAHSA, Brussels; IAHSA, Washington

08.03.2007

• geriatrics (103)
• medical technology (1447)
• security (446)