Body Interact - Training skills environment to improve patient safety and medical education

Project Information

Body Interact

Grant agreement ID: 710753

DOI

10.3030/710753

Project closed

EC signature date 27 November 2015

Start date 1 December 2015

End date 31 May 2016

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

TAKE THE WIND SA
Portugal

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Body Interact (Body Interact - Training skills environment to improve patient safety and medical education)

Reporting period: 2015-12-01 to 2016-05-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Through the feasibility study executed under this action, it was intended to:
- Develop relevant business cases in healthcare sector, to bring Body Interact to market and therefore approach big players, such as pharmaceutical companies, University Hospitals, Hospitals and Healthcare Associations.
- Install pilots at medical schools and training facilities in strategic countries, testing them with real users and obtaining relevant endorsements.
- Develop first trauma, paediatrics and chronical diseases clinical cases, based on international guidelines to showcase the potential and widespread application of Body Interact software in several healthcare domains.
- Create new clinical cases with the support of its scientific and endorsement partners to follow international guidelines.

The project comprised six different tasks: a legal and operational validation, a market study and usability/user engagement study, Body Interact Academy and New Clinical Cases; Business Development for Pilot Implementation; Business Plan and Project Management.
The results obtained with the feasibility study validated Body Interact as a sustainable and scalable business, and new development were defined for the product in order to reach its full potential. The main outcome is a strategy plan including a roadmap with new tasks and milestones that need to be met in order for the product to scale-up.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

With the SME Instrument Phase 1, Take the Wind reinforced its conviction that Body Interact will strengthen its position in the medical simulation market, with the goal of being market leader in the simulation software segment in the nearly future.
During the feasibility study Body Interact was tested in operational environment in different conditions and important partnerships were established. The main conclusion and achievements resulting from this SME Phase 1 project were:
- The Healthcare Simulation market growth will continue to be driven by constant and always more stringent regulations, which will benefit Body Interact adoption in order to a better performance of medical staff
- The need for medical staff to have available an efficient simulation system that allows them to train and develop their skills with scientific accuracy, without recurring to several information sources and having a very fast and detailed response of the system, allowing a unique user experience, savings in training and ultimately in optimization of hospital procedures. Also, since Body Interact solution is complementary to mannequin solutions which can support its’ smoothly market entry.
- Body Interact was tested in operational environment and the feedback provided by the users allowed TTW to assess the best position and business model to approach its target market.
- A product roadmap was developed in order to implement Body Interact 2.0 and to develop new features based on customers and partners’ feedback.
- An improved marketing plan was designed.
- Potential customers, partners and distributors were contacted and engaged, allowing the expansion of TTW’s network and of Body Interact’s visibility.
- Legal and operational validation was achieved.
- Freedom to Operation analysis performed with the definition of the framework to file a patent in the nearly future.
- An analysis of the main risks and barriers was performed, with the elaboration of an adequate contingency plan.
- Several strategic collaboration protocols and partnerships were established being the most relevant ones the American College of Cardiology; the American Heart Association / American Stroke Association; European Society of Cardiology and European Society of Stroke.
- Build brand recognition activities took place since for Take the Wind is strategic that Body Interact is perceived as a highly scientific value product, including the presence in some of the main conferences and events of the sector.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The Digital European Commission's Agenda through eHealth topic and subtopics Interoperability and Standardization of mobile health shows its concern and priorities in creating a better and safe care based on accurate and fast diagnosis, medical practice supported by mobile and providing devices greater clarity and effective communication between professionals. So the Body Interact addresses these very important issues, which has an impact not only on the economy, with high costs, as well as the threat of human lives.
The current state-of-the-art in simulation-based education is based on physical procedures, mainly using dummies to practice or static educational content.
Body Interact is a medical simulation platform meant for education, training and development of cognitive skills among healthcare professionals (HCPs) that allows them to experience responsive real clinical cases in virtual environments. HCPs will see its skills and competences improved, as this multi-platform displays a great diversity of real scenarios, based on a scientific algorithm, providing better training and thus reducing costly and sometimes fatal errors.
Body Interact provides better training than conventional training solutions and its main competitive advantages can be summarized as:
- It is a learning accelerator;
- Enables an holistic view;
- Helps to improve patient safety, malpractice risk or negligence risk reduction;
- Improves remote access to simulation-based education avoiding an huge allocation of resources;
- Helps HCPs and students on a faster and objective evaluation and certification of skills;
- It is a cost-effective solution;
- It is a platform focused on creating an entirely new market for health applications.

Body Interact