Horizon 2020 (Erasmus+) project – New innovative training content based on technological applications for Frailty & Falls Management" – The "Fall-In-Age" project

UNIVERSIDADE DE LISBOA, INSTITUTO DE BIOMECANICA DE VALENCIA, ISTITUTO NAZIONALE DI RIPOSO E CURA PER ANZIANI INRCA and EGPRN

In behalf of EGPRN: Shlomo Vinker, Ferdinando Petrozzuoli, Miguel Angel Muñoz and Thomas Frese

Background:

Frailty can be defined as a clinical condition in which there is an increased risk of individual vulnerability to develop adverse events such as dependence, higher Risk of Falling, and/or mortality when there is exposure to stressors. People in a situation of Frailty experience a decrease in the ability to develop the basic and instrumental activities of daily life. This decline entails a greater demand for social and health resources, from home care to institutionalization. Frailty affects between 10 and 25% of older adults and about 50% of those over 85 years. This situation is aggravated in Europe, which is the continent with the highest life expectancy. In 2050, is expected to be 70% more people over 65 in the EU.

Actions to prevent Frailty are complex, because it is a multifactorial problem. An aspect closely related to Frailty is the higher Risk of Falling of senior people. Spanish data reflects that 50% of people over 65 years will suffer at least a fall, those over 80 years will fall at least once a year. Currently, there are available new technologies that could help in the evaluation of the risk of Falling in primary healthcare.

Aims:

The main objective of the project is the development, validation and transfer of a Body Knowledge, focused on the latest advances in biomechanics and technology, especially aimed at updating the current practitioners’ needs in relation to a more objective evaluation of Frailty & Falls Management.

Methods:

• Building a web-based course intended for students and primary care professionals (family doctors and nurses), specialists in geriatrics and gerontology, rehabilitation and occupational medicine.
• Contents, developed in online format, will focus to stimulate not only the healthcare sector but also companies and private sector, which develop technological solutions for Frailty and Risk of Falling
• The transnational cooperation of project partners will allow to a better achieving of the project objectives to look for solutions that improve the management of frailty
• This project will contribute to improve the management of Frailty and Risk of Falling of senior patients, incorporating new

Expected results:

The main result of the project will be to offer an open access, high quality, and easy to use, online course. The title of the course will be "Innovative training for technology-based frailty and falls management" and will be specially oriented to medical professionals and students of fields related to health care for the elderly. During the course of the project and at the end of it, multiple dissemination actions will be carried out in forums, congresses and specialized magazines in the primary care sector of the elderly. There will also be dissemination in social networks, project website, corporate websites, and three multiplier events will be developed:

• E1: Workshop on the applicability of biomechanical systems in the field of Frailty and Falls prevention.
• E2: Workshop on Fall-In-Age Pilot Course.
• E3: Workshop on Fall-In-Age Final Course.

In what way is the project innovative and/or complementary to other projects already carried out?
The main innovations provided by the Fall-In-Age project with respect previous projects already carried out are:

• The Fall-In-Age project main objective is to make knowledge available to a wider number of clinicians thus favoring their use in clinical practice. It will provide training based on the application of biomechanical technology for primary healthcare in the management of ageing.
• The Fall-In-Age project will serve as starting point on encouragement of preventive medicine. Early detection and intervention are crucial in sustaining active and healthy ageing and slowing or reversing further decline.

Project Start:

The kick off meeting was held at the Instituto Superior Técnico of the Lisboa University. During the excellemt one day workshop the project partners introduced them to each other and discussed the working plan and first steps of the Fall-In-Age Project. In a very constructive way the conduction of focus groups during January 2019 was decided to develop the content Fall-In-Age web based course and to follow the tight working plan. The day was closed by a very interactive and intersting guided tour through the laboratoris of the Instituto Superior Técnico that brought insights into the high tech analysis of patients‘ movements and the innovative technically assisted approaches to optimize orthoses and braces for patients.

This article was published under the category News on 03/01/2019 10:00.