DigiCare4You
IFIC are pleased to be part of the multistakeholder Horizon2020-funded DigiCare4You project. The project consist of 16 consortium partners and will last for five years .In April 2021, the Digicare4You project held its kick-off meeting, officially launching the project. The 16 consortium members from Europe, the US and Australia gathered online for two days to mark the start of the project and to delimit the scope of each member´s work amongst the nine different work packages of the project.
What is DigiCare4You?
DigiCare4You aims to improve the early prevention and management of Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) and hypertension (HTN) via a community-based, person-centred solution, integrating both social and healthcare systems, supported by the use of digital tools. The project will also assess the scalability and transferability of this innovative, intersectoral solution.
How will the project be conducted?
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). 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/HTN 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 an mHealth self-management intervention coordinated by the community healthcare workforce.
What is the aim of the project?
The goal of this intervention is not only to improve the health status of the users, but also to empower the entire family in adopting a healthy lifestyle. To this end, schools and communities will also be actively engaged to promote health literacy, well-being and support lifestyle changes creating a more supportive social and physical environment for the entire community. As a large part of the healthcare
costs associated to T2D and HTN complications can be preventable, early screening will benefit and alleviate the load of saturated healthcare systems.