EMPATTICS aims to find Health Information Technology solutions which meet the needs of providers and consumers in improving the effectiveness of self-management of common chronic diseases.
Europe has the highest burden of chronic diseases, which are responsible for 86% of all deaths and result in premature morbidity and loss of healthy life years.
Also it is widely acknowledged that 70% to 80% of healthcare costs in Europe are spent on the management of chronic diseases. This corresponds to 700 billion euros in the EU Member states’ budget and this number is expected to increase in the coming years. The EMPATTICS project has chosen 3 of the most prevalent chronic diseases (diabetes, COPD and heart failure) to develop a new tool that can be adapted or extended to cope with patients affected by other diseases.
These diseases in the EMPATTICS project represent a major challenge for health systems across Europe, moving around 163 billion euros in direct costs. These diseases also impact on the wider social systems and economies of Member States which call for adequate prevention and sustainable disease management technologies.
The combination of the group of services into one technology should represent major savings for health systems across Europe and a huge business opportunity for European companies.
The proposed solutions aim to cover a technology gap identified in the e-health sector across Europe. Despite the extensive deployment of chronic patient management technologies, few of them have reached an effective interaction with the patient and its further integration with other systems, such as EMR.
The needs assessment was performed considering two perspectives: collecting the evidence about the effectiveness of the Health Information Technology and analysing the main needs of the stakeholders in each region (considering healthcare data, and qualitative information from healthcare professionals and patients).
The literature review was performed with an overview of systematic reviews of ICT in self-management interventions. This overview analysed reviews encompassing over 1,300 original studies and over 79,000 patients. Complementing the effectiveness of the ICT interventions, European initiatives, key documents and qualitative information was collected to identify barriers and facilitators that may help or hinder its implementation.
In accordance with the above arguments, this procurement is for R&D services to develop solutions to tackle the following challenge:
To develop new, cost-effective, scalable, interoperable and non-intrusive Information and Communication Technology solutions for patients with chronic diseases, which provide self- management tools on adherence to their care plan and acknowledgement of their disease in order to increase their empowerment and management of life. To address the need for the solution to support patients with information, monitoring and data analysis of their disease evolution and communication with health professionals responsible for their care plan.
The rationale of the focus by EMPATTICS on these chronic conditions is based on the high incidence, the social costs of these diseases, and the impact that adherence has on them, as well as empirically observed experiences of modifiable self-management behaviours and ICT use in relation to them.
The intended EMPATTICS technological solutions will improve the level of knowledge and involvement of patients in the management of their disease and the prescribed treatments. This requires a multidisciplinary approach that encompasses the following aspects:
- Increasing awareness of and knowledge about the importance of adherence
- Monitoring and evaluating patient adherence to agreed action plans
- Providing valuable information for the self-management of patient diseases
- Helping patients to develop healthy adaptive behaviours
- Facilitating communication between patients and health professionals.
