niCE-life

On June 2, 2022, the Final Conference which was organized by the Bratislava - Petržalka City District as the leader partner of the project, toke place at the PREMIUM Business Hotel in Bratislava, SLOVAKIA. Partners from six European countries - the Czech Republic, Poland, Austria, Italy, Slovakia and Slovenia - presented the results of the project's objectives to help seniors with various degrees of cognitive dysfunction, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, as well as various chronic diseases.

On May 30, 2022, Slovak Technical University, as a project partner, organized a meeting of development and testing AP-NURSE tool in Bratislava, SLOVAKIA.

Dear project partners and everybody who is interested in our project activities. The Final Conference will take place at the Premium Business Hotel, Priekopy 20/A, Bratislava, SLOVAKIA on 2.6.2022 at 9:00 - 15:00 h. You are all most welcome!

We spent very pleasant moments at the vernissage of famous sculptor Dušan Mock. The event took place in Gallery Umelka in Bratislava. The musical performance during the event - Lucia Lužinská.

The final event of the niCE-life project in Bologna took place in San Giorgio di Piano, a small town of the Metropolitan City that has organised an event called Notte Bianca and hosted the team of the niCE-life project. We have started with a Book Club at the Municipality Library and together a writer, the responsible person of the library, the member of the niCE-life EG, Lola Valgimigli, and other participants have discussed about the potentiality of YouBOS and its future.

Older people and formal carers are among the most relevant target groups of the European niCElife project. Nevertheless, the involvement of these groups is often not easy and technical project presentations are not interesting for these target groups. To meet this challenge, ISRAA organised a cultural event to disseminate the project results to these relevant target groups. In particular, ISRAA organised a concert which took place at the nursing home "Casa Albergo Salce".

Partners of the NiCE-life INTERREG CE project jointly conducted a virtual international workshop on the topic „Use of the e-health platform and innovative care solutions in frail elderly“. Workshop was performed on March 10th, 2022 through ZOOM Webinar. 58 participants from 6 European countries had the opportunity to learn about the results of all pilot projects. Although virtual, the workshop enabled active participation of all participants. The majority of present stakeholders from 7 countries was from the health system, followed with the social sector, local authorities and NGOs. Participants gained new knowledge and information about pilot projects which are taking place in their environment and also about possible solutions from other environments. In addition to the 6 pilot projects, e-tool for adult »children«- carers of their disabled/frail parents was presented. We also believe that the workshop has achieved its goal to show how innovative technologies can safely support frail elderly and increase quality of life of both - frail elderly and their carers from different areas of work.

The Care for Frail tool, developed in the framework of niCE-life, was presented to the national Working Group on Conceptual Solutions for Home Care. Care for Frail is part of a communication platform that enables secure electronic communication and data sharing between hospital and home health care. Given that the current processes for organizing and proving home care in the country are paper-only and involve a lot of travel with paper documents, the work group was impressed with the developed solution and will look for ways to make the developed solution available nationally.

The event took place in the Social Services Center at Mlynarovičova st. in Bratislava, Slovakia. Because it´s important to spend time with the old ones.

On December 21, 2021, the Samaritan Burgenland Department of Home Care organized a performance art event together with the municipality of Draßburg, which aimed to inform the main target group of the niCE-life project, namely the older population, about the progress of the project. A total of 15 people took part in the event. The older people welcomed the project very much and at the same time expressed their interest in being informed about the further course of the project. In order to make the project presentation entertaining for the older people, a young singer was invited to who presented a few songs.

Lepida and LHA of Bologna will present the new tool for seniors, YouBOS, to political and professional stakeholders.
We underline the seniors' difficulties to reach health and services because of to digital divide.

In September 2021, The conference title was: 10 years of the Alzheimer's Centre - a decade of non-pharmacological approaches to the care of people with neurocognitive disorders. The “niCE-life project” which is implemented at the Alzheimer Centre, was also presented on this occasion. The AP-Nurse tool is currently being tested there to help carers of people with Alzheimer's disease. The presentation was given by the project coordinator, Ms Magdalena Wieczorek, and Mr Jerzy Pawłowski, acting as IT support in the project, responsible for the proper course of testing. In the presentation, the whole project was presented, the tasks carried out and the tools that are being tested at particular partners. Mr Pawłowski focused on presenting the details of testing the AP-Nurse tool.

Monument of inter-constitutional cooperation at FEI STU BA between the Institute of Electrical Power Engineering and Applied Electrical Engineering FEI STU BA, the Institute of Nuclear and Physical Engineering and the Institute of Electronics and Photonics FEI STU BA.

A painting was painted by a patient suffering from Alzheimer's disease from the Social Services Home in Warsaw. The management of the home donated a picture to the FEI STU team as part of testing the AP-NURSE device in the niCE-life project. The image of prof. Janíček is handed over to Ing. Štefan Čerba from ÚJFI.

Presentation of the niCE Life project to Italian Technical Culture Festival with about 40 participants.

50% of them from private organizations
37% from associations
13% were citizens
10% from Institutions

The event was outdoor, in a beautiful park with a restaurant and a little museum. It was a moment of sharing, conviviality and eating together. All the members of the YouBOS staff took part and gave a speech to all the people present.
Also, a writing group was started and a calendar of mixed meetings (in presence and online) was scheduled.

"At the beginning of 2021 the niCe-life project was publicly introduced to a group of frail elders already known by the municipality and by the LHA of Bologna. The aim of the meeting was to illustrate to the elders the benefits of having computer skills and being able to use digital technologies, in order to keep themselves informed in an independet way, and also to keep in touch with their peers and friends even in case of illnesses, convalescence, isolation or even vacation. Only 14 people were able to participate due to the restrictions related to the pandemic that in Italy forbid to gather until June 2021. We were able though to extend the recruitment with word of mouth".

JULY 2021 - Presentation of project activities to the general public in Slovakia

TexAs the development of modular devices in the WP T3 working package of the niCE-Life INTEREG CE project progresses, the AP-NURSE platform has also arrived at the stage of testing in real environment. This consisted of two phases, the first one was performed in Bratislava and the second one in Warsaw, in the Social Care Home in Warsaw. The testing was performed by the STU staff, involving 8 testers, more than 40 patients and 50 AP-NURSE devices. These nodes were installed in the patients´ rooms, booth under their bed and on the doors to the balcony, corridors, exits as well as kitchens. All devices were after putting into operation connected to the dedicated information system that provides notifications for caregivers in case of any danger or hazardous event.

Within the 7th Congress of preventive medicine, which will be held in Maribor, Slovenia (2.-4.12.2021), the niCE-life project results will be presented to the general public. More information is available at www.spm.si/7-kongres.

The Samaritan Burgenland Department of Home Care developed the so-called “Monitoring Grid” together with the project partner, Brno University of Technology. The Monitoring Grid is a web application that aims to support the independent life of older people for as long as possible. Since April 2021, nurses have been questioning older people on a regular basis with the help of a standardized questionnaire, entering the results in the Monitoring Grid and thus having the opportunity to observe the health status of older people.

Nowadays, the diagnosis and monitoring of sleep disorders is conventionally performed using expensive, disruptive method called polysomnography at a hospital/sleep clinic. Brno University of Technology (PP2) has developed the Online Sleep Monitoring System, using actigraphy, digital signal processing techniques, state-of-the-art machine learning and statistical modeling algorithms to create a web application that enables a remote assessment and monitoring of sleep disorders. The system is being tested within various countries across the EU. 

The YouBOS platform of the niCElife pilot in Bologna is actively used to communicate initiatives to all stakeholders and citizens, especially those operating around the Ecare network and at a regional level.

The niCE-life was introduced to DIGI2Health team in National Telemedicine Center, University Hospital Olomouc .

During second meeting of work group for Inovations in social care the project niCE-life was introduced to the stakeholders in social care facilities in Olomouc region.

The Monitoring tool "AP-NURSE" has also arrived at the stage of testing in real environment in Warsaw (PL). The testing was performed by the STU staff  in the Social Care Home in Warsaw, involving 8 testers, more than 40 patients and 50 AP-NURSE devices. These nodes were installed in the patients´ rooms, booth under their bed and on the doors to the balcony, corridors, exits as well as kitchens. All devices were after putting into operation connected to the dedicated IS that provides notifications for caregivers in case of any danger or hazardous event.

At the beginning of 2021 the niCE-life project was publicly introduced to a group of frail elders already known by the municipality and by the LHA of Bologna. The aim of the meeting was to illustrate to the elders the benefits of having computer skills and being able to use digital technologies, in order to keep themselves informed in an independet way, and also to keep in touch with their peers and friends even in case of illnesses, convalescence, isolation or even vacation.

PP2 (Brno University of Technology, CZ) created a short instructional video showing the main features of the developed digital tool.

PP7 (ISRAA Treviso, IT) recorded a SHORT VIDEO with elderly residents of Treviso who talked about the role of technology in their lives and their relationship to it.

PP4 presented the project and the AP-NURSE digital tool in the promotional article published in the STU newsletter Spectrum. For more information click HERE.

In spite of unforeseen circumstances (pandemic situation) the partnership has made significant progress towards reaching the objective of creating new support infrastructure, care models and practices - with usage of existing capacities and acquired know-how.

ISRAA & ECH Alliance will be launching the new "Treviso Health & Social Care Innovation Ecosystem" on Thursday 12 November 2020, from 12pm to 2pm CET. Within the international network of ECH Alliance Digital Ecosystems, the new Treviso Ecosystem intends to develop and implement innovative solutions aiming to increase the quality of life and welfare of older people in the area of Treviso (Italy) and to find new ways to ameliorate the effectiveness of local and national health and social care systems. The event take place online through the GoToMeeting digital platform.

On October 28, Italian project partners Lepida ScpA and the Local Health Authority of Bologna hosted an online workshop for active seniors and volunteers from various elderly associations, foundations and unions of retired people to present the niCE-life project, its partners and objectives, in general, and to introduce pilot activities related to the new digital tool YouBOS, in particular. Developed by Italian partners, the aim of YouBOS is to foster socialisation among elderly and reduce digital divide and isolation, which is especially important as a counterbalance to physical distancing caused by COVID-19.

1 October is the INTERNATIONAL DAY OF OLDER PERSONS (designated by the UN General Assembly in 1990, resolution 45/106). Over the next three decades, the number of older persons worldwide will more than double, reaching over 1.5 billion in 2050. We need to respond to various challenges of population ageing now. niCE-life project, in particular, aims at improving quality and efficiency of elderly care.
ELDERLY PEOPLE DESERVE THE HIGHEST RESPECT.

An estimated 44 million people in the world have Alzheimer’s disease, with 10 million in Europe and over 2 million in all six partner countries involved in the niCE-life project that focuses on care coordination and social inclusion of frail elderly suffering from cognitive medium-low deficits, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. During World Alzheimer’s Month health organizations across the globe focus their efforts on raising awareness about this disease and challenging the stigma that surrounds dementia, most commonly caused by Alzheimer’s disease.

On August 14, Lead Partner Petržalka and technological project partner STU visited Petržalka’s Social Care Services Center at Mlynarovičova street / Stredisko sociálnych služieb Petržalka (in Bratislava), where the new monitoring tool AP-NURSE will be tested over the course of the project. Specific requirements and technological specifications of AP-NURSE were discussed to meet the needs of caregivers.

Lead Partner (LP) Petržalka and two technological partners, BUT - Brno University of Technology (PP2) and STU - Slovenská technická univerzita v Bratislave (PP4) held a follow-up meeting to evaluate progress of the niCE-life project thematic work package WP T2. BUT presented current status of WP T2, its milestones and responsibility matrix. LP and STU focused on the review of reports and approval steps required by the national controller in Slovakia.

The Kick-off meeting of the niCE-life project took place on January 22-23, 2020. Petržalka as the Lead Partner welcomed all nine project partners on the premises of the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava. Project partners met together not only to discuss basic points of the project, but also to get to know each other / TAKING COOPERATION FORWARD. The niCE-life project will foster social inclusion and care coordination of the elderly with cognitive medium-low deficits, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases and other chronic diseases. It will develop an innovative health care model by using progressive, key enabling technologies such as sensor technologies, ICT and data analysis techniques. It will prevent frailty of the elderly, enhance their quality of care and support independent living, social contacts and assistance after hospital discharges.

Petržalka as the Lead Partner of the niCE-life project hosted a welcome dinner for all project partners on January 21, 2020, the evening before the Kick-off meeting. The Mayor of Petržalka, Mr. Ján Hrčka, and the Deputy Mayor, Ms. Jana Hrehorová, both welcomed the guests. They emphasized the project's great importance and wished all project partners success in delivering practical results and solutions to ease the life of frail elderly.