20 Sep Diplomas awarded to older adults involved in the Murcian pilot
The Pharaon project has awarded diplomas to the older adults involved in the Murcia pilot. A total of 150 people over 55 years old with heart failure participated in the pilot where they were monitored in their own homes to provide them with a more autonomous and safer life, supported by digital devices and tools.
The manager of the Servicio Murciano de Salud (SMS), Isabel Ayala, took part in the diploma ceremony for participants of the Pharaon project, in which the SMS and the Foundation for Health Training and Research of the Region of Murcia (FFIS) have been involved for over four years. The Murcia Pilot consisted of monitoring through different devices such a blood pressure monitor, a smart wristband, and a digital scale, and a set of sensors for measuring the activity and energy consumption of the participants all integrated into a mobile application for the patient.
The devices send the data to a call center, where it is received and analysed by five SMS specialist nurses who have access to the patient’s medical records through Primary Care, facilitating their monitoring and connection with other healthcare providers. The nurses are responsible for responding to and resolving each predictive alert, many of them occurring before the patient experiences symptoms – early intervention may prevent later complications, reducing the need for consultations, emergency visits, and hospitalizations.
The goal is to understand how the patient’s life, habits, and routines are developing so that early signs of complications can be identified, and intervention can occur even before any symptoms appear. Ultimately, it is a proactive healthcare approach focused on objective signs rather than symptoms, within the European challenge of Active and Healthy Aging.
About fifty of the more vulnerable participants have additional sensors in their homes, such as bed and chair detectors or in certain appliances. This allows for monitoring of environmental humidity and temperature, as well as sedentary behaviour, night-time waking, or falls.
Through the Pharaon project, the SMS is testing “liquid care,” a new, more efficient and modern form of assistance that adapts to each patient’s situation, helping healthcare professionals. It is based on training patients in self-care, supported by the monitoring of symptoms and signs through programmed questionnaires in the patients’ mobile application, where the data collected by the devices is integrated. This new form of care and monitoring aims to be more efficient, safe, personalized, and proactive, assisting patients, caregivers, and alleviating the burden on Primary Care, with which it is closely coordinated.
Pharaon lays the foundation for this new virtual telecare platform for patients, starting with chronic and older patients. It is not limited to one age group, as this model of home tele-monitoring and telecare could be extended to users of any age in vulnerable situations, which may even be temporary, such as living alone and suffering from a disability at any time.
Impressions from the gala awarding the participants with diplomas
Video on the experience of Pharaon pilot participants (in Spanish)