ProCare4Life Pilot 3 Clinical Study: Investigating ProCare4Life Impact on Quality of Life of Elderly Subjects With Neurodegenerative Diseases

There is an urgent need to increase the efficiency and sustainability of health and social care systems across Europe, as there is a growing trend in public spending, which is expected to reach 14% of GDP by 2030. The main causes are the aging of the population, and the increase of chronic diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, asthma, mental and physical disorders and neurodegenerative conditions. Comorbidities and the confluence of various chronic diseases is increasingly common in the elderly, which increases the need to develop models and tools to improve integrated health systems.

Population aging has also led to major reforms in long-term care policies and systems in many European countries, increasing the need for alternatives. This implies the need for help with housework or other practical errands, transportation by doctors or social visits, social companionship, emotional guidance, or help in organizing professional care. In most European countries, much of the care people over 60 receive is informal care.

Among the most common chronic diseases in the elderly population, neurocognitive deterioration in the stages of dementia associated with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's are the most disabling. Today, more than 10 million Europeans live with neurocognitive disorders in stages of dementia.

This situation can be improved through the creation of an integrated care platform, able to establish correlations between co-morbidities, investigate the use of the intake of different drugs, mitigate potential health risks, study the social variables involved and promote unified therapeutic procedures or social services. This solution could help patients, health professionals and social health workers to monitor various diseases, also considering the social context. In addition, people with chronic diseases face difficulties in their daily life and need specialized care services and care. This situation imposes high burdens on the public budget, which require particular attention to adequately address the sustainability of the social and health system in Europe.

The main contribution of the PC4L project is to propose an integrated, scalable and interactive care system that can be easily adapted to the reality of various chronic diseases, care institutions and end-user needs, for the benefit of all the actors involved (e.g. patients, caregivers and health experts). The main expected results are to improve patients' quality of life, enable an active life and better disease management, support professionals in decision making, facilitate efficient communication between all stakeholders and ensure reliable and secure access to data at the within Europe.This study is part of the European multicenter project Horizon 2020, called Personalized Integrated Care Promoting Quality of Life for Elderly People (ProCare4Life, PC4L), which involves several European partners and was created with the aim of finalizing a digital platform with integrated sensors, aimed at home monitoring of health status and treatment of the elderly patient with Parkinson's disease or Alzheimer's disease and other dementias.The PC4L Project was funded by the European Community Horizon 2020 innovation and research program (grant agreement No 875221), for the development of an international research project aimed at exploring the potential of assistive technologies in monitoring the behavior of elderly subjects. The project involves in fact the elderly population suffering from chronic neurological diseases and other comorbidities such as diabetes mellitus and arthritis. This project also aims to provide home support to the caregivers of subjects affected by these diseases.