Project description
Empowering HIV patients with a mHealth platform for self-management
Advancements in digitalisation and the Internet of Things have sparked innovation across various sectors. In healthcare, these advancements have the potential to enhance patient personalisation and deliver more efficient and accurate medical care. However, the integration of such technologies in healthcare remains limited, primarily at lower levels and by a few providers. In this context, the EU-funded EmERGE project aims to develop a ground-breaking mHealth platform. This platform focuses on empowering HIV patients with stable disease to self-manage their condition. Leveraging existing mHealth solutions, healthcare providers in Spain and the United Kingdom will operate this platform. Its implementation will offer crucial support and enable patients across the EU to connect with physicians and doctors.
Objective
EmERGE will develop a mHealth platform to enable self-management of HIV in patients with stable disease. The platform will build upon and integrate the existing mHealth solutions operated by pioneering healthcare providers in the UK and Spain and apply a rigorous co-design approach to ensure patient and clinician input to the solution. The platform will provide users with web based and mobile device applications which interface securely with relevant medical data and facilitate remote access to key healthcare providers EATG, the European HIV patient organisation, will provide a direct and deep interaction with representative patients and clinicians from 5 EU countries. The platform and interfaces will be validated in a large study of 3900 patients using a tailored HTA process, MAST, specifically developed for the assessment of mHealth solutions including translatability as a key factor. Based on prior work showing a high uptake rate and use of mHealth in HIV patient populations, EmERGE aims to demonstrate the benefits to patients and simultaneous increases in cost-effectiveness for healthcare providers by reducing face-to-face consultations, estimated at 6000 saved per year within this study alone. Patient reported outcomes will be agreed and used in the assessment and development of the system which also aims to increase adherence and enable frailty to be reported using mHealth technology. Innovation will be given priority from the beginning by developing new business models of care provision, targeting key stakeholders in the EU health provider sector, including policymakers and clinicians, while eliciting demand from patients to highlight and initiate the widespread implementation and compensation of mHealth solutions within the timeframe of the project. Guidelines and policy briefs will be produced to evidence the benefits and disseminate the lessons learned to support the uptake of mHealth for self-management of other chronic diseases.
Fields of science
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepharmacology and pharmacypharmaceutical drugs
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencesinfectious diseasesRNA virusesHIV
- social scienceseconomics and businessbusiness and managementbusiness models
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringinformation engineeringtelecommunicationsmobile phones
- social scienceseconomics and businesseconomicshealth economics
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
RIA - Research and Innovation actionCoordinator
BN2 5BE Brighton
United Kingdom