Empowering families and integrating community CARE services for the prevention and management of type 2 diabetes and hypertension

Challenge

There are about 60 million people with diabetes in the European region. The prevalence of diabetes is increasing, mostly due to increases in excess weight and obesity, unhealthy diet and physical inactivity. In this context, the EU-funded DigiCare4You project will deliver an intersectoral innovation involving digital tools for early screening, prevention and management of type 2 diabetes and hypertension. Specifically, more than 10 000 families will be targeted in two middle-income and two high-income countries. Schools will be an entry point to the community. While existing procedures for children’s periodic growth assessment (conducted via school nurses or in collaboration with local community health centres) will be improved, parents/caregivers will be screened via a non-invasive self-reported digital tool.

Objectives

DigiCare4You Consortium will jointly work with local stakeholders to deliver an intersectoral innovation involving digital tools for early screening, prevention and management of type 2 diabetes (T2D) and hypertension (HTN). An implementation study will be conducted, targeting more than 10,000 families in two Middle Income Countries (Albania and Bulgaria) and two High Income Countries (Greece and Spain), considering vulnerable groups.

Schools will be used as an entry point to the community and building on an existing procedure for children’s periodic growth assessment (conducted via school nurses or in collaboration with local community health centres), parents/ caregivers will be screened via a non-invasive self-reported digital screening tool. Those identified at high risk for T2D will be referred for glycaemia testing and blood pressure (BP) measurements at local community health centres. Parents/ caregivers confirmed to have pre-diabetes or diabetes (and possibly high BP) will be invited to join a mHealth self-management intervention coordinated by the community healthcare workforce. The goal of this intervention is not only to improve the health status of the users, but also empower the entire family in adopting a healthy lifestyle.

The objectives of DigiCare4You:

• To study and understand the local needs within and across community healthcare settings and other contextual factors, including legal, ethical, behavioral and social issues
• To adapt the DigiCare4You solution and develop the relevant tools for the process, impact and outcome evaluation of its implementation
• To implement and evaluate the DigiCare4You solution and apply regular monitoring to refine protocols and ensure adaptability, equity and effective uptake, while also considering e-privacy regulations
• To evaluate the cost-effectiveness and budget impact of the DigiCare4You solution utilising a prediction model to help decision-makers decide on the solution’s potential impact on health system performance
• To define the key aspects for scaling-up or transferring the DigiCare4You solution to other regions or countries using the relevant tools
• To work with key stakeholders to promote capacity building, develop a “Roadmap for Scale-up” and disseminate the DigiCare4You solution at a national and European level.

Our Role

The nature of the research as well as the sensitivity of the data DigiCare4You will process requires that all potential ethics, privacy and legal compliance issues that might arise within the project be addressed from the outset. Following a successful implementation of the Privacy by Design approach across several other similar projects such as AI4HealthSec, we will assist through:

• Identification of the legal and ethical framework applicable to the project, assist the partners in its implementation and monitor compliance. This will be achieved by translating the received Ethics requirements into actionable items for the consortium partners.
• Data Management Plan (describe the life cycle of personal data within the project and adequate safeguards). The DMP will describe the handling of research data during and after the end of the project.

Establish the Ethics Advisory Board which will consist of several independent ethicists with relevant expertise. The EAB will ensure continuous compliance of our communication, dissemination and exploitation activities, support the coordinator by providing ad-hoc advice and contribute to Ethics & Compliance Report.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and Innovation programme under grant agreement N°945246. All information on this website reflects only the authors’ view. The Agency and the Commission are not responsible for any use that may be made of the information this website contains.