PASSION-HF - PAtient Self-care uSIng eHealth In chrONic Heart Failure

This strong consortium is Lead by Maastricht Universitair Medisch Centrum (Maastricht UMC+). Maastricht UMC+ is a collaboration between the Maastricht University Hospital and the Faculty of Health, Medicine & Life Sciense of the University of Maastricht. We distinguish ourselves nationally and internationally by focusing not only on health recovery, but also on health preservation and health promotion. Our core tasks - in addition to top referral and top clinical patient care - are scientific research, education and training, and valorisation. Maastricht UMC+ also provides basic care for the city and its environment. As such, we are ideally equipped, in cooperation with network partners, to provide care from zero to the third line, thus providing the right care in the right place. But also to investigate the effects of new care models.

The Project coordinator is Prof. Dr. Hans-Peter Brunner-La Rocca

Mobilab & Care is a research group within Thomas More. Thomas More is the largest university of applied sciences in Flanders, offering more than 30 Dutch-taught and a range of English-taught bachelor degree programmes in the province of Antwerp. Mobilab & Care is a multidisciplinary centre of expertise. We carry out people-oriented, leading and innovative applied scientific research at the interface of care, welfare and technology. As a centre of expertise, we work together in a multidisciplinary way on the well-being of people. After all, care is our care. We improve the quality of life of people in need of care and support on a physical, psychological and social level. Our objective is to enable people to participate fully in society through prevention, rehabilitation and permanent support. We achieve this through social and technological innovations in the field of health (care) and well-being by setting up independent practice-based scientific research, by evidence-based care from a multidisciplinary perspective. To this end, we work closely with governments, the professional field and education (+end-user) at home and abroad. Our multidisciplinary team consists of 22 full-time equivalents, spread over 31 people. The team has all the necessary profiles such as: engineers, ICT, sociologists, nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, dieticians and orthopaedic technicians. In addition, different team members have two different and divergent diplomas (e.g.; combination of physiotherapist and ICT; engineer and psychologist). All projects are always followed up by a part of this multidisciplinary team.

Sananet is an SME in the Netherlands. In our vision, the large-scale introduction of eHealth is crucial for the renewal of healthcare. Sananet's mission is to improve the health and quality of life of people with one or more chronic conditions by deploying eHealth solutions. Sananet focuses on the development of eHealth solutions, in particular the development of telemonitoring. These online guidance programs provide healthcare professionals with real-time insight into the well-being of their patients. They improve the quality of chronic care and make the relationship between patient and caregiver more personal and intense.

The Deutsche Stiftung für chronisch Kranke is a non-profit, independent foundation with the aim to support, develop and evaluate care programs to improve the care process of chronically ill patients. To reach our goals, we actively facilitates cooperation and networking between stakeholders, develops and implements concepts for patient-education, and empowerment, and promotes and realizes projects which focus on the optimization of health care structures and processes, including innovative technologies, such as telemedicine.

Exploris is an SME and is a pioneer in Artificial Intelligence (AI) based eDiagnostics and eTherapeutics for clinical decision making. It is one of the first companies which has successfully passed clinical studies for novel diagnostic tests applied in clinical practice. The technology platform comprises of clinical data sources, knowledge and a proprietary software engine capable for detecting relevant patterns and dependencies in data and finding new predictive combinations of variables.

Nurogames is an independent games development company, founded in 2006 by experts of the games and media industry. Nurogamens covers a wide range of experience, comprising high-skill development for mobile and cross-platform games, serious games being our main activity. By participating in multiple research projects nationally and internationally, Nurogamens ensures long-term orientation and knowledge of state-of-the art technologies. Nurogames has large experience in research projects of the BMBF and the EU.

Queen's University Belfast is a centre of teaching excellence and innovative research. Queen's University Belfast is geographically, clinically and research linked to the BHSCT, a large regional trust encompassing primary and secondary care facilities, thereby promoting an efficient clinical interface. It offers a tertiary heart failure service to a population of 1200 patients, as well as those living in its locality. The heart failure service is consultant led with 8 heart failure nurses in secondary care and 2 within primary care.

Universitätsklinikum der RWTH Aachen (UKA) is among the leading health care providers in Germany. UKA covers leading research and teaching at the integrated medical faculty together with high-end patient care. With respect to cardiovascular patient care UKA provides the entire spectrum ranging from primary patient care to end-stage cardiac patient care. UKA also provides networking with primary care cardiologists within the “Städteregion Aachen” which includes about 0.8 million inhabitants in rural and urban areas.

University College Dublin is the largest academic institution in Ireland providing an environment for undergraduate and postgraduate research, education and innovative developments. From the view point of this grant the College is closely linked to two large University teaching hospitals in Dublin providing the necessary background administrative and structural supports for investigator-led and industry / consortia based research.

This paper is published in open access

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13167-019-00188-9