Among our main objectives was to have a clear vision of the needs of the group of toilets in charge of foot health. For this, a panel of experts was developed locally to make a first approach to these needs. Once the results of the panel of experts have been analyzed, we will prepare a large survey at European level to meet the academic needs in continuing education of professionals and recent graduates. The project partners established the curriculum of the future online course of Biomechanics update based on a series of meetings and teleconferences in order to be as innovative as possible and conform to the proposals and results of the European survey, a faithful reflection of the needs of European professionals in charge of foot health. This curriculum included clear learning objectives, planning the structure of each unit, an innovative teaching methodology, a table of contents adjusted to the agreed plan as well as the recognition framework. The curriculum included the ECTS strategy using the European tools that were available for this purpose. For all this, the project partners established a dissemination plan at the beginning of the project that focused on the definition of the objectives, specific groups to which it was addressed, the means of support, the resources and estimated costs, the distribution channels of information and a planning and programming of the dissemination activities that were developed during the project. The dissemination results were: ~ Project website. The website had a public area available in all languages of project organizations and a private area in English, only for project partners and control agency. The public area was a general dissemination tool, which included information about the project, participating organizations, intellectual results and dissemination events. The private area was used for internal communication and to share and store information. ~ Periodic electronic newsletter. Project partners contributed throughout the project with news and achievements. A PODIATRAIN electronic newsletter was prepared every six months, a publication with news and facts about the activities and results of the project. The newsletter was available on the website and was sent electronically to the defined dissemination target groups. ~ Dissemination actions. The project partners attended different events where the PODIATRAIN project was disseminated throughout its duration. All materials that were generated and used in the actions and were available through the website. Quality assurance reports. These periodic reports, produced every six months, contained the quality assessment carried out by the project partners regarding work progress and financial and administrative performance, evaluation of project participation, project meetings and communication. internal and external. Peer review of the contents of PODIATRAIN. Three podiatrists outside the consortium and with recognized competence evaluated the contents developed with the objective of ensuring their adequacy to achieve the established learning objectives and the adaptation to quality standards. Concluded all this process, the achievements of the project are: Training content and accompanying materials for the PODIATRAIN course. The set of modules and units. The training of the course was developed in accordance with the defined curriculum and following a defined pedagogical methodology to strengthen the participation and participation of users. Operating Agreement Project partners agreed and signed an Exploitation Agreement after project completion. This agreement defined the IPR of the project results and the associated access rights, the exploitable results, the target audience, the key actors and the exploitation routes for organizations that participated in the project. PODIATRAIN online course. When the project was completed, the course was implemented in the e-learning platforms of the partners, a fact that was carried out when the project was completed. Podiatrists were the main beneficiaries of the course, but other target groups were students who finished their degree in podiatry and other foot health professionals such as foot and ankle surgeons. As the pilot course reports show, we were surprisingly represented by other related groups such as physiotherapists, orthopedic technicians, biomedical engineers, specialists in diabetiology. Around 87,000 European podiatrists received impacts during dissemination as academic partners ensure the representativeness of European formal training programs, all of which are members of the European Network of Podiatry in Higher Education (ENPODHE). Patients will indirectly benefit from receiving a more accurate diagnosis and better treatments based on the latest research and technologies. In addition, since PODIATRAIN intends to homogenize best practices among European podiatrists, this will directly benefit patients throughout Europe.
Foot diseases are recognized as a wide societal problem, reducing mobility, social activity and quality of life of the people suffering from it. The occurrence of foot problems, which has been reported at 40%, affects specially the elderly, diabetic and obese people. This means around 202 million European people will suffer some kind of foot abnormality or severe pain. Podiatry can support the wellbeing of these population groups through a twofold strategy of treatment and prevention.As other health care services, podiatry is under significant pressure to provide innovative, effective and timely services. Ageing, advancing technology and the specific needs of different population groups constitute a major challenge for podiatry profession, so responses are needed to support a modern and developing podiatry profession.PODIATRAIN project aim is to create a European high education framework to homogenize and improve knowledge of podiatrists in advanced techniques and treatments as well as bring to bear the newest technologies for user assessment. PODIATRAIN will offer these professionals a number of advantages over traditional methods providing a route to transform podiatry from an artisan craft into a modern clinical speciality. The project results will contribute to improve the competences of these professionals, widening their labour opportunities. PODIATRAIN will be available in two European languages (English and Spanish).PODIATRAIN consortium is formed by three universities and one research and technological centre: Universidad Católica de Valencia (Spain), Mikkeli University of Applied Sciences (Finland), University of Malta (Malta) and Instituto de Biomecánica de Valencia (Spain). This consortium has been set up to guarantee the success of the project and its future exploitation beyond the project end. Project partners are experts in the contents to be developed; they have access to current and future podiatry professionals and capability to exploit the course. In addition, they will explore the EQF credit recognition and the introduction of PODIATRAIN outputs into formal education. Academic partners assure representativeness of European formal training programmes, being all of them members of the European Network of Podiatry in Higher Education (ENPODHE).PODIATRAIN project will have a total duration of 30 months and it will be coordinated by the Universidad Católica de Valencia. Dissemination, Exploitation, Quality management and Project coordination are activities planned for the management and implementation. PODIATRAIN has associated three intellectual outputs, all of them will be freely accessible through the project website to target users and also for general public interested on them: - Curriculum of PODIATRAIN course - Formative contents and complementary materials of PODIATRAIN course - PODIATRAIN on-line coursePodiatrists will be the main beneficiaries of the course, but other target groups will be students finishing their bachelor's degree in podiatry and other foot health practitioners as foot&ankle surgeons. Around 87.000 European podiatrists will have the opportunity to improve their skills, acquiring more competences based on advanced techniques and treatments as well as on the use of new technologies for better assessment and diagnosis of patients.Patients will indirectly benefit of receiving more accurate diagnosis and improved treatments based on latest research and technologies. In addition, as PODIATRAIN intends to homogenize best practices among European podiatrists, this will directly benefit patients throughout Europe.