At present, there is an increasing trend of population over 65 years of the world population, especially in Europe, this implies an increase in the number of detected case of Frailty and falls. Frailty is a multifactorial problem, people with Frailty need simultaneous, coordinated and stable health and social care, adjusted to the principle of continuity of care. The models of socio-health care generate a social and economic problem that is necessary and urgent to address. According to the WHO, prevention strategies to be adopted by health systems should be aimed at the identification of risk factors, since one in three older adults suffers at least one fall per year, constituting one of the main geriatric syndromes and the second world cause of accidental or unintentional death. A fall also imply a deterioration in the autonomy of the elderly, decreasing their quality of life and that of their social environment, increasing their frailty. Despite the benefits and potential of biomechanical technologies to improve assessment of frailty and risk of falling of elder people, it is undeniable that their applications are still limited to research and academicals scopes. Experts have not brought down the technical and methodological barriers yet, being these methodologies mostly unknown by the majority of students of medicine and healthcare professionals. The aim of this proposal is the development and implementation of an online free access course to assure students of medical specialist and professional who want to improve their skills a worthy education and training regarding the applicability of biomechanical technology in the context of treatment of Frailty and especially to reduce the number of falls in advanced aging people. The consortium of this project is composed of four partners with interdisciplinary skills to guarantee the achievement of the project main objective. UL, IBV and INRCA will guarantee the access to the main knowledge of the course. UL is a recognized university with extensive experience in pedagogic elaboration and adaptation of formative contents for the development of online training courses using open source platforms. IBV is a European leading research center focused on biomechanics and its application in medicine. INRCA is a research institution on aging that has education and translation of research output in clinical practice among its missions. The adaptation of the training contents to the requirements of project key stakeholder is assured with the participation of EGPRN. EGPRN is an international and a referent institution which represents the Primary Attention Medicine in Europe. Therefore, EGPRN will play a key role in the harmonization of contents, scopes and applicability of project results. The consortium has also been chosen taking into account the experience and capabilities for EU-wide dissemination. All partners are experienced in dissemination activities at national and international level. The project is planned to 2 years and all the tasks will be developed under the frame of three Intellectual Outputs: -O1. Curriculum of the Fall-In-Age course. -O2. Pilot Course integrated in the e-learning platform. -O3. Final version of the on line courses in English, Portuguese, Spanish and Italian. In addition, we will address the activities of management, dissemination and exploitation of the project. Project results will enrich medical students and professionals on the optimization of assessment processes of Frailty and Risk of Falling of older people. This will allow them to increase the use of current technologies (biomechanical systems), which will be lead to an upgrade in current prevention methodologies. Furthermore, promoting a web based open access on-line course complemented with the work-based learning and apprenticeship-type training will contribute to get a better standardization and qualifications of target users. This will provide new employment opportunities for them. This project will also have positive impact in the participating organizations. The experience of participating in this project will contribute to reinforce the internationalization strategy of all partners. Furthermore, partners will strengthen their position on this particular field, acting as a reference center on application of biomechanical technology among stakeholders. By exploiting the online course, all partners will increase and improve their training course portfolio, gaining visibility among target users and potential future customers. In conclusion, the approval of this project will have a positive impact in the last instance on the group of elderly people, improving the methodologies for the prevention of frailty and reducing the Risk of Falling and as a result, they will improve their independence and quality of life.
Presently, there is an increasing trend in the world population over 65 years, especially in Europe, which implies an increase in the number of detected cases of frailty and falls. Frailty is a multifactorial problem and people with frailty need simultaneous, coordinated, and stable health and social care, adjusted to the principle of continuity of care. The models of social healthcare generate a social and economic problem that is necessary and urgent to address. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), prevention strategies to be adopted by health systems should be aimed at the identification of risk factors, since one in three older adults suffers at least one fall per year, constituting one of the main geriatric syndromes and the second world cause of accidental or unintentional death. A fall also implies a deterioration in the autonomy of the elderly, decreasing their quality of life and that of their social environment, increasing their frailty. Despite the benefits and potential of biomechanical technologies to improve the assessment of frailty and risk of falling of elder people, it is undeniable that their applications are still limited to research and academic scopes. Experts have not brought down the technical and methodological barriers yet, being these methodologies mostly unknown by the majority of students of medicine and healthcare professionals. The aim of this project was the development and implementation of an online free access course to assure students, specialists, and professionals of medicine, who want to improve their skills, a worthy education and training regarding the applicability of biomechanical technology in the context of treatment of frailty and, especially, to reduce the number of falls in advanced aging people. The consortium of this project is composed of four partners with interdisciplinary skills to guarantee the achievement of the project goals. The University of Lisbon (UL), the Instituto de Biomecánica de València (IBV), and the Istituto Nazionale di Riposo e Cura per Anziani (INRCA) will guarantee access to the main body of knowledge of the course. UL is a recognized university with extensive experience in pedagogic elaboration and adaptation of formative contents for the development of online training courses using open-source platforms. IBV is a European leading research center focused on biomechanics and its application in medicine. INRCA is a research institution on aging that has education and translation of research output in clinical practice among its missions. The adaptation of the training contents to the requirements of project key stakeholders is assured with the participation of the European General Practice Research Network (EGPRN). EGPRN is an international reference institution that represents Primary Attention Medicine in Europe. Therefore, EGPRN will play a key role in the harmonization of contents, scopes, and applicability of project results. The consortium was also assembled considering the experience and capabilities for EU-wide dissemination. All partners are experienced in dissemination activities at the national and international levels. The project spanned for 2 years and all the tasks were developed and implemented under the scope of three Intellectual Outputs: - O1. Curriculum of the Fall-In-Age course. - O2. Pilot Course integrated in the e-learning platform. - O3. Final version of the online courses in English, Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian. Project results are to enrich medical students and professionals on the optimization of assessment processes of frailty and risk of falling in older people. This allows them to increase the use of current biomechanical-based technologies, which, consequently, leads to an upgrade in current prevention methodologies. Furthermore, promoting a web-based open access online course, complemented with work-based learning and apprenticeship-type training, contributes to a better standardization and qualification of target users, which, ultimately, provides them with new employment opportunities. The project had also a positive impact on the participating organizations. The experience of participating in this project contributed to the reinforcement of the internationalization strategy of all partners. Partners strengthen their position in this field, acting as a reference center on the application of biomechanical technologies among stakeholders. By exploiting the online course, all partners can increase and improve their training course portfolio, gaining visibility among target users and potential future customers. But, above all, this project's most positive impact is, undoubtedly, on the group of elderly people, as the improvement of the methodologies for the prevention of frailty and reducing the risk of falling certainly results in the improvement of the independence and quality of life of these people.