2008

MyHealth@Age - Improved Health, Safety and Well being for Elderly People living in Northern Periphery regions

Many elderly people feel unsafe outside their homes. This limits their social contacts and physical activities. MyHealth@Age aims to provide products and services to make it possible for elderly people to feel safer and live a more active and healthy life.

Background

The Northern Periphery territory is vast and comprises almost half of the land area of the European Union. The area is sparsely populated, with an average population density of less than 5 inhabitants per km2 in Northern Finland, Sweden and Norway.

This is in stark contrast to the average population density of 117 inhabitants per km2 (EU27) and draws a clear dividing line between northern and central European regions. As the sparsely populated regions are also remote and peripheral, challenges overcoming and coping with long regional, national and international distances are intensified.

Project description

The project will create a new modular product platform that makes it possible to provide safety, prescribed self treatment and social network applications to elderly people - based on each individual’s specific needs and circumstances. Already during the project, several new applications will be developed, evaluated and enhanced.

Examples are fall sensor alarm with assistance support suitable both for alarm centres and for friends and relatives, prescribed self-treatment that makes it possible for Health and Welfare Organizations to offer supervised quality assured self medication avoiding the need for own staff to perform the medication for elderly people that can manage this by themselves, and enhanced social networks that will improve isolated elderly peoples social life. These are examples of applications that will be developed and evaluated.

Financing

The project is financed by the project partners and The European
Union through the Northern Periphery Programme.

Project partners

City of Luleå (Sweden)
Municipality of Boden (Sweden)
Norrbotten County Council (Sweden)
Social Welfare Department of Tromsø kommune (Norway)
Southern Health and Social Care Trust Ulster (Northern Ireland)
Centre of Distance Spanning Healthcare at Luleå University of Technology (Sweden)
Norwegian Centre for Integrated Care and Telemedicine at the University Hospital of North Norway
University of Ulster (Northern Ireland)
Arctic Group
Blue Tree Services
Docobo
IntelliWork AB
McElwaine SMART Technologies
Swarmteams
TeliaSonera
TietoEnator