EIT Health

Our project aims to address the challenge of digital inclusion and low usage of digital technologies amongst people with ID. Through a co-creation process with adults with intellectual disabilities, we will develop an innovative digital skills education programme delivered via an accessible solution/app.

E-health applications have become more prominent, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. Without digital skills, citizens with intellectual disabilities will experience much poorer health and wellbeing. People with intellectual disabilities have high levels of communication difficulties, with one in three reporting difficulty when talking to their healthcare professionals.

Therefore, the need for reasonable adjustment when developing any form of education is essential.

Our goal is to empower people with intellectual disabilities with the knowledge, skills and confidence to manage their health and social inclusion needs digitally to ensure they are not left behind in our digital age.

For more information, contact Esther Murphy at ESMURPHY@tcd.ie and see https://www.tcd.ie/tcaid/research/Project7.php

Lung biopsy is the definitive method of lung cancer diagnosis, but it leads one-in-three patients to suffer from a collapsed lung or pneumothorax, which causes significant pain, distress and difficulty breathing. In severe cases, it is life-threatening.

Selio’s patent-protected technology eliminates this common, costly and dangerous complication and thereby prevents significant patient morbidity and expensive hospital admissions for invasive treatment (which comes at an average cost of $11,000 per patient).

It is a single-use, smart device that temporarily seals the needle access route into the lung before the biopsy even takes place and so eliminates the risk of lung collapse.

The technology has been rigorously tested in the lab, and in subsequent acute pre-clinical in vivo studies, with very positive results. The company is already beginning to look globally, seeking advice from regulatory consultants in the US, and has a clear path through FDA and CE mark approval.

For more information, contact Bruce Murphy at murphb17@tcd.ie or Colm Mc Garvey at MCGARVCO@tcd.ie

The BeHealSy PhD programme was designed to create a new generation of student entrepreneurs who have the ability to develop innovative devices and services for a healthier Europe. This programme combined strong scientific education, training in entrepreneurship, learning-by-doing pedagogy and mobility schemes.

The PhD Programme in Biomedical Engineering and Health Systems (BEHealSy) was designed to equip doctoral students in engineering with multidisciplinary research skills in health systems and the ability to translate research outcomes into innovation and entrepreneurship initiatives.

Led by KTH Royal Institute of Technology, nine biomedical engineering universities and several industrial partners collaborated to develop a strong, unique curriculum that addresses the need for personalised health solutions on all levels – from the cellular through organismic to systemic.

For more information, contact Richard Reilly at reillyri@tcd.ie

QuickStitch develops a wound closure device that is superior to alternative methods such as sutures and skin staples. The device is faster and easier than sutures – without the poor cosmetic results, risk of infection and pain associated with a stapler. QuickStitch’s solution will allow surgical and traumatic wounds to be closed more quickly, and with greater ease for doctors and patients.

The EIT Health project is intended to help QuickStitch achieve commercial and technical milestones. The EIT Health partnership makes it possible to complete a business plan, define the route to market and make the project investor-ready.

On a technical side, EIT Health support will allow the team to optimise the device design for manufacture and help it to complete most major milestones required for the FDA regulatory approval that is necessary for entry into the US market.

For more information, contact Ciaran Simms at CSIMMS@tcd.ie or Cyrus Doctor at cyrus@starlingsurgical.com

CEMACUBE is the Common European Masters Course in Biomedical Engineering. Students in the CEMACUBE Master’s programme learn by doing as they develop and test new medical devices and work to bring their innovations to market. Certified with the prestigious EIT Label, this Master’s in Biomedical Engineering increases the international mobility of students, who will study at two different universities.

CEMACUBE provides students with skills to realise a medical device that can solve a medical problem. Students work in co-creation with the stakeholders, including patients, medical professionals and members of the industry, to develop prototypes and test them in real life.

Their course work continues with the second part of the process, implementation and commercialisation, as they develop a business plan and prepare for CE certification and a patent application.

Led by University Medical Center Groningen, the course involves a total of five universities and combines innovative pedagogical methods with excellent scientific content.

For more information see https://www.biomedicaltechnology.eu/index.php or contact Conor Buckley at cbuckle@tcd.ie

For many patients with dementia, the hospital can be distressing and disorientating. The built environment plays a central role in this experience, but just as the hospital can be challenging, it can also be supportive, therapeutic and healthful.

In response, the Dementia-Friendly Hospital Design Guidelines from a Universal Design Approach were published in 2018 to promote a holistic and practical approach to the design and retrofit of hospitals.

Over 3 weeks, this MOOC will present the main design issues contained in these guidelines.

It will discuss the symptoms of dementia and methods for engagement and co-creation with patients and accompanying persons, outline the role of Universal Design in dementia-friendly design and, provide practical guidelines applicable to various areas of the hospital.

It will use text, photos, drawings, videos, links, multi-choice questions, and comment sections to provide a stimulating and interactive learning experience for a range of stakeholders.

For more information, contact Thomas Grey at greyt@tcd.ie

FFallS Predictor is an implantable monitoring device that has proven that 28% of falls in older adults are directly attributable to modifiable heart rate and rhythm changes. This project will show that an implantable system can provide real-time solutions for early fall detection and prevention.

Falls are the most common reason for older adults to attend emergency departments. New mechanisms are needed to monitor early risk factors: to advance prevention and management of these conditions and improve healthcare and support independent living.

Implantable devices are new to this market and have limited capabilities. The FFallS predictor device will monitor a wide range of factors to create a better profile of what triggers a fall.

For more information, contact Ann Hever at HEVERA@tcd.ie

Innovation Days (i-Days) promote health innovation among university students through dozens of one-to-two-day programmes held at academic institutions around Europe.

Students receive an introduction to practical health innovation tools and compete in multidisciplinary teams to tackle real-life health challenges posed by EIT Health projects, local organisations and private corporations.

Crucial elements of i-Days include design thinking training, pitch coaching, citizen engagement and industry involvement. Students from all academic areas can participate in multidisciplinary teams, to bring the full potential of ideas and approaches to real-life challenges.

Along with the team competition for exciting prizes, i-Days feature relevant inspirational speakers and impressive judging panels, who contribute expertise.

Teams that win the various university competitions will attend the Winners Event, a final competition that unites students from around Europe and provides opportunities to continue developing ideas and skills.

I-Days teach students about the EIT Health mission, promote other EIT Health activities and encourage students to join the Alumni Network.

While i-Days traditionally involve on-site gatherings, due to the pandemic this year, students will be allowed to join online.

For more information, contact Breandán Gos on GOSSB@tcd.ie

In alignment with the principles of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (Goals 4, 8, 10 and 17) as well as UNESCO (2005) which ensures education for all citizens, the Get Wise About Your Health, Supporting people with intellectual disability to be health savvy project co-created and delivered an innovative online platform in conjunction with people with intellectual disability (ID).

This education, delivered in an accessible easy-read manner, addressed two great difficulties people with ID experience in managing their own health.

Firstly, due to greater health challenges compared to those of their non-disabled peers, health needs are often unmet, resulting in significant health disparities globally.

Secondly, people with ID have high levels of communication difficulties, with one in three reporting difficulty when talking to their healthcare professionals.

Therefore, the need for reasonable adjustment when developing any form of education is essential. This project empowered individuals with ID with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to manage their own health.

The course is aimed at individuals with ID to learn more about keeping healthy. The initial module ‘going to the doctor’ provides the learner with experiences on how to prepare, what to expect and how to get the best out of the experience.

Building an online tool to help the individual prepare and use for the visit, the material is delivered using reasonable adjustments via animation and is easy to read.

Wise up to your bone health is also being covered in this call. In a way, the course captures a combination of teaching students how to talk to their doctor and how to live a healthier lifestyle. Our aim is to encourage learners to become informed consumers of health.

For more information, contact Eilish Burke on eburke7@tcd.ie

As big pharma promotes synthetic opioids, and patients more frequently self-diagnose, opioid addiction is booming. This course helps learners use entrepreneurial approaches to address the crisis.

These days, patients are relying less on traditional medical advice and making more decisions about how to medicate themselves, causing major distortions in diagnoses that are made worse by the increasing availability of synthetic opioids.

TOMA seeks to address this situation by training entrepreneurs to provide innovative solutions for the problem.

Course participants will learn to apply new, creative and entrepreneurial insights in order to help resolve the real-life correlation between misdiagnosis, misinformation and newer, more potent forms of opioid addiction.

For more information, contact Breandán Gos at GOSSB@tcd.ie

E-PRO was a project to enable European cancer patients and citizens to access available and understandable scientific knowledge about the use of radiation in the management of cancer, in their own language.

The primary aims of E-PRO were to dispel the myths about the use of radiation in the therapeutic management of cancer and to empower patients to take part in decision-making about their cancer treatment and their after-treatment care as well as actively taking part in the EIT Health innovation process.

E-PRO was based on a MOOC that had already been developed in the lead partner institute as a pilot project in 2018 in the English language. The first iteration of this MOOC had 1500 participants from 111 countries worldwide but with EIT funding we can increase the participation of patients from Europe through its translation into Spanish, French and Russian, the latter selected as it is spoken conversationally in 7 EU countries.

For more information, contact Michelle Leech at leechm@tcd.ie

In 2020, the InPhysEd winter school programme empowered participants to develop and pitch solutions for the challenge of including students with intellectual disabilities (ID) in physical education classes.

This online programme is based on the understanding that inclusive learning spaces and early educational interventions are needed to promote healthier living, social integration and well-being for people with ID.

The programme brought together teacher trainees, sports students, health and science students, and people with ID, to co-design innovative, inclusive learning solutions.

In particular, participants developed solutions for including students with ID in physical education classes – and shared their ideas with educational various stakeholders from ministries, schools, universities and more.

For more information, contact Melanie Ni Dhuinn at MNIDHUIN@tcd.ie

Participants in “OpenAPI: Cross Market Integration for Digital Health” gained insight into making their digital health innovations better integrated to other markets through OpenAPI design. They also learned to make their products more appealing to customers through user-centred design.

Technical advice and real-world case studies from system providers within the industry helped teams develop their innovations to be compatible with existing systems across three different countries: Ireland, Sweden and the UK.

Participants learned about fit with user practices, technical integration with Cerner and other electronic patient record providers, and generalisation across multiple healthcare systems.

For more information, contact Breandán Goss at GOSSB@tcd.ie

The Physical Activity Leader Project (PPALs) was an EIT Health Campus programme that gave older adults with intellectual disabilities the skills and confidence they needed to lead their peers in a range of games and activities designed to improve functional fitness.

Phase 1 was developed in 2018 and its graduates helped to lead an EIT Health Campus Summer School in 2019. For 2020, PPALs 2 will build on this experience to bolster the scalability and sustainability of the programme.

Improvements under PPALs 2 will include:

• Expanding the training from the UK, Ireland and Spain to include Germany.
• Introducing a new module to build the confidence of the PPALs to lead activities.
• Training support staff within disability services to empower people with ID to lead activities.
• Adding digital work packages; micro-learnings and the PPALs support app co-created
  during Phase 1.

For more information, contact Eilish Burk on eburke7@tcd.ie

ProVerum developed a minimally invasive implant for patients with symptomatic Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) as an alternative to invasive surgery. ProVerum 2.0 created a flexible delivery system allowing easier insertion. The project also assessed the route to market for the device.

BPH is an enlargement of the prostate causing difficulty with urination and is one of the most common medical conditions affecting men, with 50% over 60 years impacted. ProVerum offers a safer, less costly alternative, with fewer side effects.

The project originated in the EIT Health BioInnovate Programme, where the Co-Founder, Dr Conor Harkin, was a Fellow in 2013. An “unmet clinical need” for a less invasive treatment for BPH was identified.

For more information, contact: Thomas Lynch at lynchth@tcd.ie or Conor Harkin at Conor.Harkin@tcd.ie

SHAPE I&E spotlights the breadth of technical possibilities for wellness and lifestyle applications, with a focus on the translation of the latest scientific knowledge about sports, ergonomics and big data from wearable devices and sensors.

The course looked at how to take advantage of big data on motion and posture. The course considered how to translate physical data from citizens – including the elderly, children and professional athletes – into solutions for healthy living for all.

Using this knowledge, participants could boost public health initiatives and wellness innovations to new levels. Innovations for keeping the mind fit, through sports and other practices (meditation, active learning), were also considered during the course.

Graduates of the programme will be the innovators and entrepreneurs of the future, enabled to create bridges between human science, technology and health.

For more information, contact Michael Monaghan at MONAGHMI@tcd.ie

People with intellectual disabilities experience poorer mental health than those in the mainstream population. This activity addressed mental health concerns among adults and older people with intellectual disabilities and developed social and environmental interventions/solutions that can be employed by individuals and by services and minimise ill health and maximise positive mental health in adults and older people with intellectual disabilities.

Learn more about SOOTHE and see the SOOTHE eQuilt of Mental Health and Wellbeing at https://sootheid.eu/

For more information, contact Fintan Sheerin at sheerinf@tcd.ie

The UpMe project developed and delivered an innovative online course targeting healthcare professionals and health policymakers seeking to address the challenges of appropriate medicine use. The UpMe course helped learners incorporate the perspective of patients in their professional practice.

When healthcare professionals engage with caregivers and patients, they can base their practice on the patient perspective. The result is a better relationship between patients and healthcare professionals, more appropriate medicine use, improved patient outcomes, and reduced healthcare costs.

For more information, contact Martin Henman at MHENMAN@tcd.ie

Validator was a two-month digital health incubator hosted at Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin in collaboration with our partner EIT Health.

The programme was a full-time intensive incubator, to enable early-stage Digital Health start-ups from across Europe to validate their business idea and find their product/market fit in Europe.

As part of the 2019 programme, start-ups took a two-week tour of 3 health tech hubs across Europe: Grenoble Ecole de Management, France, Universidad Politecnica di Madrid in Spain & Newcastle University in the UK. The itinerary at each location was specifically designed for rapid market validation.

You can read profiles of the innovative start-ups who participated here: https://www.tcd.ie/tangent/accelerators/digital-health/

For more information, contact Breandán Goss at gossb@tcd.ie

The Women’s Health After Motherhood massive open online course (WHAM MOOC) breaks the silence over postpartum problems and bridges women’s knowledge gaps, enabling them to self-assess and feel empowered to take action.

After giving birth, many women experience conditions that negatively impact their physical and mental health, though these problems are preventable and treatable if recognised early.

This MOOC leverages studies of more than 3 000 women to establish a concerned community and show women that they do not need to feel alone with health problems that they perceive as embarrassing – and that are rarely prioritised by professionals.

This MOOC reacts to the evidence of the Maternal health And Maternal Morbidity in Ireland (MAMMI) study, which involved more than 3 000 first-time mothers and showed that engaging women about their health postpartum is a powerful way of enabling them to take control of their health.

To ensure that the MOOC is as women- and mother-friendly as possible, all of the content and videos have been co-designed and co-created with members of the Public Participation in research Initiative. The MOOC is available in English, Spanish/Catalan (TBC) and Dutch.

The WHAM MOOC was developed by the School of Nursing & Midwifery at Trinity College Dublin, University of Barcelona and University Medical Centre Groningen.

With the goal of stimulating active ageing and mobility among older adults, MOVAGE-ACT developed and implemented educational and informative activities that targeted behavioural change.

The project was designed to enable older adults to obtain new knowledge and skills on how to manage their physical activity, help combat the onset of chronic disease and to prevent a decline into dependency. The project empowered citizens not only to live longer but also to live well.

MOVAGE-ACT engaged older people across Ireland and France in a series of health-oriented, community-based events and activities that promoted active and healthy ageing.

This project is built on the understanding that mobilisation and social engagement help to maintain physical, emotional and mental health. The focus of this project was the promotion of healthy physical activity and mobility among older adults.

Drawing on the expertise of E-Seniors in France and Age & Opportunity in Ireland, the programme involved older people living in France and Ireland in events that celebrated the benefits of active ageing and educated people on how to achieve it.

The MOVAGE-ACT consortium consisted of the School of Nursing & Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin, Université Grenoble Alpes, eSeniors and Age & Opportunity.

For more information contact Gabrielle McKee at gmckee@tcd.ie

AHI aimed to turn healthcare employees into ambassadors for healthcare innovation. Participants learned to add value to their organisations by addressing old problems in new ways. They were provided with skills that could enable the creation of new products and services and foster a culture of innovation in their teams.

The programme gave up to 37 healthcare professionals in Ireland the entrepreneurial mindset, skills and competencies to identify, develop and implement innovative solutions to challenges within their organisation.

Digitisation of jobs and changing work patterns require an entrepreneurial outlook and an ability to adapt to change. The training specifically targeted clinical and non-clinical employees – in primary and secondary care organisations and in the healthcare industry – who would act as ambassadors for innovation.

The programme was delivered in both Dublin and Copenhagen in a collaboration between Tangent in Trinity College Dublin, the HSE in Ireland, the Capital Region health service in Denmark, Copenhagen University and Maastricht University.

For more information on Ambassadors for Healthcare innovation, contact Dan Rogers at Daniel.Rogers@tcd.ie

PEPRECO responded to the growing trend in genetic profiling by helping meet the need for professionals who could counsel clients about this procedure.

PEPRECO developed training for a new kind of professional, called a Personalised Prevention Counsellor, a health coach who can help clients with decisions involved in commercial preventive genetic testing.

For the first version of the course, the target group of learners included health coaches in the broadest sense of the word, including lifestyle coaches, nutritionists, exercise therapists, and personal trainers. After completion of the course, participants learned to function independently as a counsellor in preventive genetic testing.

This project was led by the Department of Complex Genetics at Maastricht University and was run in a collaboration with Learnovate, a technology centre based in Trinity College Dublin, Institut de Formació Contínua – IL3, part of the University of Barcelona; and MyBasePair BV.

For more information on this project, contact Deirdre Green at deirdre.green@learnovatecentre.org

BRAINNOVATE: Biology of brain Disorders 2019: New frontiers in Innovation was a Summer School blending the interdisciplinary study of brain disorders with innovation training.

Through interaction with neuroscientists, pharma-company leaders and innovators, the students were trained in creative thinking, product development and leadership. Brainnovate is a collaboration between the School of Medicine and Tangent in Trinity College Dublin and Roche Diagnostics.

For more information on Brainnovate, contact Daniela Tropea at tropead@tcd.ie

Self-management of health and lifestyle interventions through:

Development of solutions and education programmes that enable individuals and their families to take charge of their own health – by detecting early signs of disease and by being better equipped to understand and monitor their own treatment.

Development of products, services and citizen-oriented strategies to encourage positive lifestyle changes, including the development of business models for preventive care.

Making workplace interventions and overcoming functional loss through:

Development of programmes and solutions to optimize the workplace environment and work experience, to improve employability.

Development of solutions for age-related metabolic, motor and cognitive dysfunction at home and at work, in urban and rural environments, to allow for extended periods of independent life.