Other relevant Joint Actions and European Projects
Joint Actions
ACLOVE – Joint Action on Alzheimer Cooperative Valuation in Europe
Dementia, specifically in the form of Alzheimer’s are an EU public health priority. ACLOVE (2011-2013) aimed to increase knowledge and understanding of dementia among EU citizens, as well as to contribute to the wellbeing of persons with dementia. ACLOVE worked with 30 partners from 19 different European countries.
CanCon – Joint Action on Cancer Control
CanCon (2014-2016) aims to reduce the cancer burden in the EU by improving the quality of cancer care in member states, improving the quality of life of cancer patients and survivors and ensuring reintegration and palliative care and a decrease in inequalities at various levels of the cancer control field. CanCon is lead by Nacionalni inštitut za javno zdravje, NIJZ, Slovenia and has associate partners from 16 different European countries.
Joint Action on Mental Health and Well-being
Mental Health problems have been highly prevalent in Europe with more than 10% of Europe’s population being affected every year according to WHO’s estimations. This Joint Action aims to contribute to the promotion of mental health and well-being the prevention of mental disorders and the improvement of care and social inclusion of people with mental disorders in Europe. The Joint Action for Mental Health and Well-being (2013-2016) is funded by the European Agency for Health and Consumers, involving 51 partners and representing 28 EU member states and 11 organizations and is coordinated by the Nova Medical School/Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, Nova University of Lisbon, Portugal.
RARHA – Joint Action on Reducing Alcohol Related Harm
RARHA (2014-2016) focuses on: improving comparable monitoring systems relating to alcohol consumption in EU Member States; reviewing the scientific evidence regarding drinking guidelines in EU Member States; providing guidance and tools to policy makers on effective approaches to reduce alcohol related harm, focussing on short interventions, media campaigns and school settings. The RARHA Joint Action is coordinated by the Ministry of Health in Portugal and involves 32 associated partners from 27 member states.
Projects and Studies
ACT – Advancing Care coordination & TeleHealth Deployment Programme
The Advancing Care coordination and TeleHealth Deployment Programme (2013-2015) addresses a primary challenge EU member states face in healthcare systems: the ageing population and the related burden of chronic disease. The ACT programme aims to gather data and best practices from 5+ regions, determine a baseline for how care coordination and telehealth works in these regions, conduct an iterative evaluation of care structures and procedures, and lastly, create a best practices ‘cookbook’ to ensure that the findings can be replicated in other EU health regions. This project involves 4 partners and involves 5 regions from the following countries: Spain, UK, the Netherlands and Italy.
ASSEHS (2014-2016) studies current existing health risk stratification strategies and tools and challenges by bringing together stratification related professionals from Health Services, Academia, and Research centers from European countries. The project intends to contribute to the innovation of care for the ageing population in Europe through generating knowledge on the use of stratification tools at policy making, healthcare management and clinical intervention as well as practice levels. AESSEHS has 11 partners and affiliated members from 7 countries across Europe.
E-capacit8 (2013-2016) explores and systematizes the existing training curricula for Occupational Health Professionals (OHP’s), as well as complement them with new country and sector specific educational materials. E-capacit8 targets OHPS’s mainly, but also benefits HR managers, employers, social partners, local authorities and others. E-capacit8 has 14 partners from 14 European countries.
EConDA – Economics of Chronic Diseases
EConDA (2015-2018) aims to aid member states in developing, selecting as well as implementing more cost-effective policies to improve chronic disease prevention and impact upon populations with the highest rates of premature deaths from chronic diseases and reduce health inequalities. EConDA focuses on cardiovascular disease, diabetes, respiratory diseases and two risk factors: tobacco and obesity in eight EU countries as follow: Bulgaria, Finland, Greece, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and the United Kingdom.
EMPATHiE – Empowering Patients in the Management of Chronic Diseases
EMPATHiE (2013-2014) was a study comissioned by the EC under the EU Public Health Programme, to contribute to EU knowledge and facilitate the development of patient-centered healthcare policies wile also feeding into the reflection process on chronic disease management. The results of EMPATHiE were a catalogue of best practices in patient empowerment, an analysis of barriers and facilitators in patient empowerment, a proposal of a method by which validity of good practices in patient empowerment could be transferred as well as four scenarios on EU collaboration on patient empowerment in the next ten years. The report has 5 partners from 6 EU countries.
Europeans of retirement age – chronic diseases and economic activity report
The Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) (2012) prepared a report to review the impact of chronic disease on the population of pre- (50+) and post-retirement age in the European Union (EU). The report found that social participation is increased by multidisciplinary interventions (consisting of psychological, vocational, and physical training components) for patients diagnosed with cancer, mixed physical training (cardiorespiratory combined with resistance training) for patients with cardiovascular disease, and occupational multidisciplinary therapy for patients with COPD.
EUROTRACS – European Treatment & Reduction of Acute Coronary Syndromes cost analysis
EUROTRACS (2013-2015) aims to develop utility analysis (cost-effectiveness) in the fields of interventions designed to prevent coronary artery disease incidence, and in optimal use of coronary angiography and percutaneous intervention procedures in the management of patients with acute coronary syndrome. Through this, EUROTRACS contributes to promoting health and reducing health inequalities which is a main objective of the Health Programme of the European Commission. This project is supported by 10 partners form 7 European countries.
FrailClinic (2014-2017) is a project dedicated to assessing the feasibility and effectiveness of programs designed to detect and manage frail older patients in different clinical settings. The main aim is to improve the poor outcomes of frail older people previously undetected in settings of high risk. FrailClinic has a total of 10 partners from Spain, UK, Italy and Poland.
HASIC – Healthy Ageing Supported by Internet and the Community
HASIC (2014-2016) aims to empower older people (65+) in Europe to adopt healthy lifestyles which include a healthy diet, physical activity, moderate alcohol consumption and social participation. In order to achieve this, HASIC has three main platforms, group activities, an online platform and network development services. HASIC has 7 partners from Finland, Estonia, Hungary, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Norway.
An estimated 50 million people suffer from multiple chronic diseases in the European region. ICARE4EU (2014-2016) focuses on innovating care for European citizens with more than one chronic condition. ICARE4EU will describe and analyse innovative approaches in multidisciplinary care for people with multiple chronic conditions currently existing in Europe. ICARE4EU is supported by 7 partners from the Netherlands, Germany, Finland, Italy, UK alongside European Organizations.
iNCD – Integrated Surveillance of Non-Communicable Diseases
The iNCD project (2014-2017) aims to describe how Member States of the European Union can optimise their use of the European Core Health Indicators (ECHI) shortlist to report on progress towards reaching the nine voluntary global targets of the Global Monitoring Framework on Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs). The iNCD project, under the World Health Organization’s regional office for Europe will review key international databases and the degree to which they already hold data against the indicators of the monitoring frameworks, assessing their completeness and quality. Through this, the project will move towards its goal of supporting the EU Health Strategy.
InnovAge is a three year project (2012-2015) dedicated to social innovations which support active and healthy ageing. The project also aims to make a major contribution to the EU Horizon 2020 goal of extending healthy life years. Their key output will be four new major social innovations in different EU countries as well as a new European platform to promote sustainable implementation of social innovations to promote well-being in later life. The project has 10 different partners from 7 different European countries.
The goal of Manage Care (2014-2017) is to develop applicable standards for clinical pathways as well as guidelines and training curricular for health care professionals using these standards.This project is currently the largest public health project in the chronic care sector funded from the European commission. It is supported by 37 partners from 17 countries from Europe and beyond.
MPI_AGE (2014-2017) uses MPI that predict mortality, based on a Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA), to improve the cost-effectiveness of health interventions in older individuals with multimorbidity and polypharmacy. The broader aim of this project is to reduce unnecessary use of health care resources according to appropriate and tailored, integrated multi-professional, planned interventions to the older people. This project is supported by 9 partners from Italy, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, Spain, France, and Czech Republic.
MoPAct – Mobilizing the Potential of Active Ageing in Europe
MoPAct (2013-2017) aims to make longevity an asset for social and economic development through research and practical evidence. The project has 29 partners from 13 different countries across Europe who collaborate to study the interfaces between demographic developments and the main dimensions of their economic and social impact.
PALANTE – Patients Leading and Managing Their Healthcare through eHealth
PALANTE (2012-2015) focuses on secure and user friendly online access by citizens to their medical and health data allowing them to maximize the potential of ICT technologies in healthcare. Access and management of a patients own health records and healthcare empowers patients, increasing their ability to take over decisions made on their behalf in healthcare. This project has 21 different partners from 12 European countries.
The general objectives of PASEO (2009-2011) were strengthening capacities in intersectoral structures and intraorganisational capacities. This project was aimed towards policy-makers, researches as well as experts in the field. PASEO influenced policy in optimizing promotion of physical activity to elderly people in Europe. PASEO included 27 organisations from 15 European nations.
PHWork – Promoting Healthy Work for Employees with Chronic Illnesses
PHWork (2011-2013) was an initiative by European Network for Workplace Health Promotion (ENWHP) to increase public awareness about the importance of retraining and encouraging return to work of chronically ill employees. This was promoted through enabling job retention or by supporting their return to work (RTW). WHP worked towards introducing effective workplace health practices, by creating a favourable culture and by providing guidance and a number of tools to employers, to help make a difference for employees with a chronic illness.
ProHealth65+ – Health promotion and prevention of risk-action for seniors
ProHealth65+ (2014-2017) seeks to determine effective methods of promoting a healthy lifestyle among older population groups. The project targets the elderly, intending to provide them with good health and good quality of life and enabling them to be active and socially integrated (Healthy Aging).This project brings together 32 partners from Poland, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, Portugal, Greece, Bulgaria, Czech Republic and Hungary.
RAHEE – Research Agenda for Health Economic Evaluation Project
RAHEE (2013) was a World Health Organization, regional office for Europe initiative carried out by the framework of the Health Programme by the European Commission. The RAHEE project aimed to outline the existing health economic evidence on the 10 conditions responsible for the highest burden of disease in the European Union, and to use the knowledge gaps identified to make recommendations for the European Commission. From 34 European countries, there were 290 collaborating centers on this project.
UHCE – Urban Health Care Centre 2.0
UHCE (2015-2018) promotes innovative health and social care pathways, the early detection of frailty, the management of polypharmacy and the prevention of falls for active and healthy ageing for European citizens. The objective is to develop, implement as well as to evaluate UHC 2.0, that is, the Urban Health Centres 2.0 project as a means to disseminate a transferable and easily implementable model for community integrated care for European citizens in European cities. UHCE has 12 partners from 5 different European countries.
VINTAGE – Good health into older age
VINTAGE (2009-2011) aimed to build capacity at the European, country and local levels by providing the evidence base and collecting best practices to prevent the harmful use of alcohol amongst older people, including the transition from work to retirement, and to invest in older people’s health and well-being. The results of this project are a reduction of major alcohol-related non-communicable diseases that affect older people (i.e. neuropsychiatric disorders, cancers, etc.), increasing healthy life years. With 21 partners from Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, Norway, Czech Republic, Finland, Slovenia, and the UK, VINTAGE produced reports on Alcohol and older people: a public health perspective, Best practices on preventing the harmful use of alcohol amongst older people, including transition from work to retirement,Database on Best Practices and Grey Literature Database.
Networks
With its European Heart Health Strategy II (2011-2014), EHN through this project resulted in a recommendation for investing in data collection systems in order to monitor trends in CVD risk factors, mortality rates and incidence, encouragement for policy makers to adopt legislative measures to improve dietary standards and reduce smoking, while at the same time promoting greater physical activity, an underlining of the need for scientific and professional bodies to draw up effective strategies for implementing professional guidelines and overcoming barriers. This project was supported by 30 partners in Europe, the main partner being the European Heart Network.
EUNAAPA – European Network for Action on Ageing and Physical Activity
With its roadmap (2011-2015), EUNAAPA aims to educate and enhance awareness in medical professionals and to support strategies to disseminate and exchange knowledge and expertise on the EU at a national and regional level. EUNAAPA’s vision is optimal health and quality of life for older people in Europe through physical activity, it also aims to use evidence based strategies to improve health and quality of life among older people in Europe through physical activity. The network has a range of international members from Nigeria to Israel and more.
