The PECT BAGESS exposes the projects that are underway to improve care for dependency and chronicity after a year of work

Coordinated by the Manresa City Council and shared by various entities that operate in the region in the socio-health field (Althaia, Ampans, Eurecat, the FUB, IDIAPJGol – ICS and Sant Andreu Salut), the project aims to improve the quality of life and favoring the social inclusion of the group of people with dependency and chronic illnesses. In turn, the initiative seeks to promote the transformation of the sector through research and the implementation of digital solutions.

The auditorium of the San Juan de Dios Hospital hosted on Monday the 20th the balance act of the first year of the PECT BAGESS (Project of Specialization and Territorial Competitiveness Big Data, Analytics, Management and Strategy in Health and Social), an initiative coordinated by the Manresa City Council and shared by agents from the territory in the socio-health field that began in May 2021 with a double objective. On the one hand, to improve the quality of life and favor the social inclusion of the group of people with dependency and chronic illnesses, in a region, that of Bages, which has a high rate of aging and over-aging. On the other hand, to promote the economic transformation and the digital transition of the socio-health sector in the region –both public and private– to make it more competitive, sustainable, resilient and with quality employment.

The project has a budget of 2,762,752 euros and a grant of 1,381,376 euros, from the Generalitat de Catalunya. It has been promoted by a partnership of seven partner entities -which are the ones that receive funding to carry out specific actions-, plus four collaborating entities, which support the proposal. The partner entities are the Manresa City Council, Sant Andreu Salut, the Althaia Foundation, Eurecat, the Catalan Health Institute (ICS) - Central Catalonia -through the Jordi Gol University Institute for Primary Care Research- the Bages University Foundation ( FUB) and the Ampans Foundation. The Bages County Council, the Training Consortium Union, the Catalan Association of Associative-Based Entities and the ICT Social Health Foundation collaborate.

In the noon event, the institutions that are developing projects have shown their progress after a year of work, through lines of action focused on the creation of technological tools and new assistance models that benefit dependent people and with chronic diseases, their families and the health and social personnel who care for them, as well as the entire ecosystem that is generated in their environment. Before the start of the act, the representatives of the institutions participating in the project, together with the mayor of Manresa, Marc Aloy Guardia, took a family photograph in front of the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital.

Telemedicine for chronic patients

The Eurecat technology center and the Althaia Foundation are collaborating closely in the design of a telemedicine platform aimed at patients with chronic pathologies, especially the elderly. Two use cases have been chosen to monitor two different chronic pathologies. On the one hand, mental disorders and, on the other, ischemic heart disease. In the latter case, the platform will be for monitoring a cardiac rehabilitation program. Through this tool, the patient will be able to obtain information about their health process, have health education resources at their fingertips and also report data on their health status to avoid decompensation related to their chronic pathology.

An application for the patient to be more autonomous

The Foundation Ampans is developing a mobile application that will allow dependent people, in a situation of disability or aging, to have a direct communication channel that helps them to be more autonomous and makes them less dependent. The project has the collaboration of a strategic consultant that has helped to detect the needs of the people who will be potential users. Together with them, through co-creation workshops, the functionalities and architecture of the future application have been defined.

The new App will provide a repository of professional services directed and specialized to provide solutions to dependent people, and will have a library of informative audiovisual resources that will support the management of the most relevant challenges of each group, as well as a list with activities of adapted leisure. It will also have a private area, aimed mainly at the families of users, which will allow them to communicate directly with the entity's direct care teams and social workers, who will receive notifications about health incidents, and will be able to consult the documentation and medical file at emergency cases, and they will receive information on activities or images of their relatives.

An Observatory of Dependence and Chronicity in Bages

Sant Andreu Salut leads the creation of the Dependency and Chronicity Observatory of Bages, which aims to have a careful and up-to-date knowledge of the health and social needs of the population in the region. It is designed to address all the voices that are generated around the dependent and/or chronic person, providing information, contact and meeting points.

On its website, you can find general information (statistics, reports, reading and consultation bibliography and links to other content-generating entities) and specialized information, through research groups. It will also allow knowing and contacting the different service providers aimed at people with dependency and chronicity, as well as with entities and associations that give them support.

Statistical analysis of dependency and chronicity

IDIAP Jordi Gol - ICS Catalunya Central is promoting a statistical laboratory for the analysis of dependency and chronicity of Bages, based on a database that allows collecting and analyzing the most relevant information from the different environments that affect ( health, social, economic and environmental). Within the global framework of the project, it will be in charge of combining the data from the various information provider entities, providing a unique identifier that makes it possible to determine that the person to whom the data refers is the same. The data will be pseudonymized for its treatment, analysis and distribution in the form of a report or other products and services required and developed by the needs of the rest of the actors involved.

Currently, the necessary analysis of the legal framework for sharing data between entities has been achieved, with various legal reports and approval by the Catalan Data Protection Authority. Starting from this basis, the legal foundation of the database has been worked on to make its creation effective, pending approval by the IDIAP Jordi Gol Research Ethics Committee.