Changing demographics and increasing pressure on health-related resources mean that Europe is being forced to reimagine how it cares for the health and social care needs of its citizens. There is an urgent need to move away from the current episodic model of healthcare where we manage illness on a reactive basis and move towards a more proactive model where we manage health throughout the lifespan. Digital technologies are frequently proposed as a potential means of facilitating this move. One area that has received a significant amount of attention in recent years is the emerging field of Connected Health, which proposes a shift in which health is managed through judicious use of technology supports. Put simply, Connected Health involves a redesign of care models that are underpinned by a base of putting the right information in the right hands at the right time by enabling informed and enhanced decision making by all actors in the process.
Connected Health poses an enormous potential for the health and social care system. It promises a more efficient model of proactive and engaged care against a backdrop of economic efficiency. However, delivering a Connected Health future is far more difficult a process. It is an emerging market and science. It requires “t-shaped” individuals with deep disciplinary expertise allied to a broad understanding of a variety of domains including business, economics, life science, health science, computer science, social science, and engineering. Current research/training programmes in Europe do not address this need and adoption of Connected Health solutions, and consequently, practices are limited. The overarching aim of CHESS was to address this by means of training a leading edge cohort of Connected Health scientists and champions who have a broad understanding of multiple domains, who can communicate in an interdisciplinary world, and who can operate across the education, industry, and health and policy sectors. It is only through development of the next generation of leaders in the field, leaders who have a keen interdisciplinary understanding and collaborative outlook, that we can make true advances in the adoption of connected healthcare models, and deliver the real benefits that Connected Health promises for society.
CHESS is Europe’s first networked Connected Health PhD training programme. CHESS recruited and trained 15 PhD students across Ireland, UK, Spain, Finland, France, and Greece. The 15 PhD students carried out research projects that were spread across 4 thematic fields in Connected Health:
1. CARE
The objective of this thematic area was to investigate how technology enabled models could be designed in close consultation with the patients themselves, and to provide evidence for the effectiveness of Connected Health models
2. CHANGE
The objective of CHESS research in this area is to identify barriers to change and address accommodations that can facilitate the process amongst the different stakeholders involved in the production of health.
3. DATA
The objective of CHESS research in this area was to investigate, develop, and evaluate new algorithms and models to support the acquisition to exploitation lifecycle for “data” in Connected Health applications.
4. SUSTAINABILITY
The objective of CHESS research in this area was to investigate existing business models in healthcare and develop sustainable business and revenue models for vendors and purchasers wishing to engage in the Connected Health market.
