TeNDER successfully completes pre-piloting phase

After careful preparations, TeNDER is ready for 2021 and the first wave of pilots. During the pre-piloting phase, consortium partners laid out the legal and ethical framework of the project, defined the technical architecture of the services TeNDER will provide, consolidated the system for gathering data and analysing results, and consulted future users, among other things.  

In addition, we developed use case scenarios, stories that reflect real-life situations and help us conceptualise how users will interact with our tools. To complement this exercise – and despite the difficulties the COVID-19 pandemic posed – we safely reached patients, carers, and professionals to reflect on the technology and TeNDER tools.

TeNDER partners in Germany, Italy, Slovenia, and Spain conducted nearly 200 surveys and 61 interviews with patients, caregivers, and medical and social professionals. The results gave us invaluable insight into the ways the TeNDER system will be used on the ground:

“I would like to have more autonomy. And that when I communicate with people, they understand
all that I want to say.” (patient with Parkinson’s Disease)

“Some days, when I returned from work, I found her on the floor and she couldn’t explain what had happened. It would be very useful to know what happens [while I’m gone] and to be alerted if she has fallen.”
(caregiver of a patient with dementia)

“It would be nice if you could also encourage patients to exercise regularly, and monitor their vital signs, too. As a physician, I would benefit from reading the reports before seeing the patient.” (neurologist)

The importance of the pre-piloting phase

During this preparation phase, we not only identified what patients, caregivers, and other participants need, but we also worked with TeNDER’s technical partners to ensure their input is integrated into the system design. Furthermore, we translated complex procedures into less technical terms.

Careful preparation helps projects like TeNDER stick to timelines, reduce failure rates, and above all, achieve societal impact for the benefit of patients and those who surround them.

What comes next?

TeNDER pilots will take place in three waves all the way through to end of 2022. Results, publications, updates, and analyses will be made available on our website and other platforms throughout the duration of the project.

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Outcome of the Sustainable Places Conference 2020

On 30 October, several EU-funded initiatives participated in an online workshop organised within the general framework of the Sustainable Places Conference 2020. The workshop, titled “Sustainable Housing Supporting Health and Wellbeing,” centred on the benefits of and the ways to create living spaces fit for all walks of life.

Among a broad range of innovative projects and therefore participants with various backgrounds, Annelore Hermann (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid) presented TeNDER and how it fosters independent living, particularly in old age.

Each project is developing tools, policy recommendations, and services that contribute to sustainable housing and other living environments. This entails, for example, creating age-friendly home certification models (Homes4Life), as well as TeNDER’s own integrated care system.

Other initiatives are focusing on policy and strengthening the links between various stakeholder groups that have a strong impact on healthy ageing and wellbeing (SHAFE). Linked to these policy goals is the work of researchers and other stakeholders seeking to support the creation of age-friendly communities, integrated health, etc. (NET4AGE-FRIENDLY). Meanwhile, AGE’IN and SmartWork aim to improve access to living and working environments that help extend the independence of ageing populations.

The ongoing pandemic has put a spotlight on the needs of people and communities over the course of time. What all the projects and the people behind them have in common, is that they strive for more safety, more independence, more sustainability, and above all: less isolation.