EDUCAT
Empowerment of Disabled people through the User Co-production of Assistive Technology
Priority Axis
Technological and Social InnovationSpecific objective
Technological Innovation
Lead partner
JUNIAContact
Date de début
01/09/2016Date de fin
31/08/2021Project budget
3 143 745 €ERDF amount
1 886 247 €ERDF rate
60%À propos
Common challenge
In the EU, 40% of the population was foreseen to be more than 65 years old by 2020. Moreover, 80 million people are disabled, which is more than 15% of the population. The significant social and economic challenge faced by societies in Europe is to enable people to remain in their own home as long as possible, to maximise their independence and to improve their quality of life. The use of Assistive Technology (AT) is a way to do this. However, to ensure the competitiveness of SMEs working in AT and related ICT, it was necessary to provide tools and a relevant network to develop innovative products with a reduced time to market and a high end-user acceptance. The challenge talked by EDUCAT was to develop AT for a wide range of the population, accepted by and useful for the end-users. Thus, the first challenge of the project was to develop innovative products and services that ensured three criteria are met: usability by a large number of end-users, acceptance and long-term use. The second challenge was to demonstrate the products' potential and facilitate their commercialisation. Both challenges were addressed using a bottom-up approach, where active participation by end-users, health professionals, researchers and businesses was essential.
Overall objective
Main outputs
Cross border approach
Main Achievements
EDUCAT was a project aiming to develop and deliver adaptive, open and modular technology to promote independence and improve quality of life for people with motor impairment and neurological disorders. The project aimed to promote a user-centred assistive technology design, using co-design methods, involving service users, engineers, clinicians, researchers, user-support networks and companies. The expected benefits were cost and time savings for companies (when developing technologies) and hospitals (to provide medical care) as well as a higher efficiency of use of the technology.
Because partners believed that the best innovations start from a user need, they have developed the digital platform iTCH! to build up a network which would bring together people with different skills and nationalities, where ideas could be shared to contribute to innovative projects aimed at delivering technologies for a better health. Currently, 34 ideas are shared on this platform and the iTCH! network includes 43 companies, 31 health service users, 17 networks and 27 service providers.
Further, to allow developers to test effectiveness of new medical devices or treatments through clinical trials, an open modular adaptive framework has been developed. This consists of a cloud database, an Android tablet and an embedded hardware. Developers can merge their own sensors, systems, algorithms as new modules in the overall framework, allowing cost- and time-effective testing. The framework allows easy setting up of clinical trials on different remote locations with different user types and roles, letting the developer focus on the data analysis, rather than facing the problem of setting up the required environment to conduct the clinical trials. The data recording system has been tested by connecting it to 9 wheelchairs over a period of 5 days. Preliminary results showed the potential of a clinical value of the driving characteristics for gathering information about the wheelchair users and their need of assistance. Since the end of 2020 An Obstacle Detection System (OAS) and an autonomous parking system are available. A study of Wheelchair market of Belgium and France is also available, including an estimate saving of 1400€ a year per person using a powered wheelchair and OAS system.
Testimonial
One of the main goals of EDUCAT was to create an international digital space where healthcare providers could interact with health service users to implement new projects inspired by their needs, questions, or ideas around better and adapted healthcare services.