A research project called Pervasive Electronic Monitoring in Healthcare (PEM), led by the University of Malta's Faculty of ICT, has been shortlisted as best practice in digital health for the elderly in the Interreg initiative called INTENCIVE.
INTENCIVE, which stands for Innovation and Technology Enhancing Customer Oriented Health Services, is addressing the societal challenge of ageing society combined with decreasing population in rural and other remote areas.
In this respect, Dr Conrad Attard, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of ICT at the University of Malta, delivered a talk on Pervasive Electronic Monitoring in Healthcare with a focus on prevention and the elderly during the first online study visit attended by all partner countries.
Dr Attard is the lead researcher of PEM, and together with a team of local, multidisciplinary professionals, he is contributing to making PEM a reality.
The study visit was organised and hosted by the Ministry for Gozo via Microsoft Teams on 2 September from the island of Gozo.
The project that Dr Attard spoke about aims at increasing the quality of life of People with Dementia by assisting them in their daily life activities as well as enabling their social engagement with other persons including care-givers, family members and other members within the community. By using an ageing simulation suit and wearable devices, participants of the study are allowed to experience both technology and what it feels to be old and with dementia. The project will build a large dataset that will allow researchers to improve the way we recognise human activities of people with dementia.
PEM in healthcare is funded by ISL limited through the University of Malta's Research, Innovation & Development Trust in collaboration with St Vincent de Paule.
Other projects that were featured during the study visit were Pharmacy of Your Choice and the myHealth portal.
Further information about INTENCIVE may be accessed online.