Flagship Project
A flagship project funded by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Climate Protection, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology aims to demonstrate how telecare can reduce the burden and improve the quality of life for informal carers of people with dementia at home, as well as reduce behavioural problems and extend the time to full inpatient care for people with dementia.
Although there are already a number of such efforts, these goals have not yet been fully achieved. Some reasons are that too little attention has been paid to the changing and culturally dependent needs of informal carers and people with dementia, the ongoing technical maintenance of telesystems has not been at the centre of efforts, and the positive effects of telecare solutions have been difficult to experience directly.
A cross-sector consortium unites experts from universities, clinics, social services and technology companies with the intention of bringing telecare in Austria to a broad application in practice. To this end, it is necessary to guarantee the quality standards for health care solutions that are already required of an “app on prescription” in Germany.
Members of the Consortium
FHV Vorarlberg University of Applied Sciences
HCT Research, das interdisziplinäre Forschungszentrum für nutzerzentrierte Technologien an der Fachhochschule Vorarlberg, entwickelt Gesundheits- sowie Informationstechnologien für Menschen mit besonderen Bedürfnissen und evaluiert sie in der Praxis. Sie hat die Koordination des TeleCareHub inne.
Evaluation Software Development GmbH
The company has many years of expertise in software development in the medical/psychological field, with a focus on the electronic recording of the subjective state of health of chronically ill patients, which is significantly contributed to the project.
Diakonie de La Tour gBetriebsgesellschaft mbH
The association of over 90 social, health and educational organizations has years of experience in the field of people with dementia. An interdisciplinary team works intensively on the development of the best possible care structures for home care and the care of people suffering from dementia as well as their relatives, families and friends.
Carinthia University of Applied Sciences gGmbH
The research group “Active & Assisted Living” and the research centre “Institute for Applied Research on Ageing” contribute competences in the field of participatory technology development up to the evaluation of digital health applications and conduct cross-disciplinary research on social, economic and technical issues to support quality of life and social participation.
connexia – Gesellschaft für Gesundheit und Pflege gGmbH
connexia contributes significantly to the further development of gerontological psychiatric care – through the development and implementation of innovative projects in mobile, semi-inpatient and inpatient long-term care – on behalf of the province of Vorarlberg and the Vorarlberg Social Fund within the framework of the connexia Competence Centre for Care and Nursing.
FAWO GmbH
The company deals with the provision, integration as well as the support of selected end devices and assists in ensuring the interoperability and scaling of telecare and telesupport systems through technical and sector-specific know-how.
Intefox GmbH
The company specializes in the development and marketing of services in automatic data processing and information technology with a focus on electrical and electromechanical equipment for buildings.
Leopold-Franzens-University Innsbruck
The research area Clinical Psychology 1 of the Institute of Psychology at the Leopold-Franzens-University Innsbruck provides gerontological psychotherapeutic competences in the development of digital health applications as well as in the evaluation of their effects.
Salzburg Research Forschungsgesellschaft mbH
The research area “Human Motion Analytics” develops technologies for the detection of human motion as well as algorithms for the evaluation of motion quality and contributes experience in usability engineering in the development of solutions for older people.
Medical University of Innsbruck
Dr Defrancesco is an assistant professor and senior physician at the Medical University of Innsbruck (MUI). She is a leading specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapeutic medicine at the University Clinic for Psychiatry Innsbruck – a department at the Innsbruck State Hospital (Tirol Kliniken GmbH).
In addition to a comprehensive medical assessment, inpatient therapy and information, the memory consultation at the University Department of Psychiatry also offers assistance in organising further social networks.
ZeMiT Centre for Migrants in Tyrol
As a non-profit association, the Centre for Migrants offers confidential, independent, free and multilingual counselling for persons with a migration background on legal and social issues in Tyrol and Vorarlberg.
Project duration: The project started on 1 March 2022 and has a project duration of four years.
TeleCareHub is funded in the programme “benefit” by the Federal Ministry for Climate Protection, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology (BMK).
