Project description
Innovation for multimorbidity treatment in elderly patients
Multimorbidity in elderly patients reduces their quality of life. Healthcare silos prevent integrated treatment, aggravating patients’ conditions. The EU-funded ESCAPE project will coordinate and optimise the integration of care for mental distress and somatic diseases in multimorbidity treatment. ESCAPE will develop a comprehensive patient-centred intervention that is based on the blended collaborative care approach and enhanced by pioneering information and communication technologies. Trained care managers will work with the patient’s general practitioner that are supported by a clinical specialist team and a meta-algorithm incorporated in an integrated care platform. The overall aim will be to reduce the disease burden for patients and improve the quality of life of patients and carers.
Objective
ESCAPE will rethink current practice for treating multimorbidity in elderly patients and break down health care silos that impede integrated care and lead to adverse outcomes. We will coordinate and optimise care, prioritising integration of treatment for mental distress and disorders in the treatment of multimorbidity. Our interdisciplinary multinational consortium of experts from general and hospital medical practice and psychology, health economics, ICT development and social innovation as well as patient and informal carer representatives, will develop a holistic, patient-centred intervention based on the blended collaborative care (BCC) approach and enhanced by cutting-edge information and communication technologies. Trained Care Managers will work closely together with the patient’s general practitioner under supervision of a Clinical Specialist Team. They will use a meta-algorithm integrated in the interactive imergo® e-health Integrated Care Platform to customise patients’ treatment to their individual needs and preferences and liaise among providers. The platform will also empower patients and informal carers to increase their intrinsic capacities. ESCAPE as a social innovation will decrease disease burden for patients, informal carers and ultimately society and improve their quality of life (QoL), prioritised as the most important treatment outcome by patients, carers, and multimorbidity guidelines. ESCAPE will conduct for the first time a randomised controlled trial embedded in a comprehensive cohort study design to compare BCC and usual care. We will include patients with heart failure, ≥2 medical comorbidities and psychological distress. The primary effectiveness endpoint will be patients’ health-related QoL. Medical outcomes, cost-effectiveness, and several other patient-relevant outcomes will be secondary endpoints. We will apply an active dissemination and exploitation strategy to derive maximum impact from the new pathway for multimorbidity care.
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RIA - Research and Innovation actionCoordinator
5230 Odense M
Denmark