Within the Interreg project BaltCityPrevention, the “Webinar for Digital Health Enthusiasts” took place on the 1st of April 2020. During which 45 participants out of 8 countries met in a virtual meeting room and exchanged about innovative approaches in prevention and eHealth.
The “Matchmaking for Digital Health Enthusiats” that was originally planned in Tallinn, was cancelled because of the current Corona pandemic. Within few weeks the team of the Estonian organizers and the Lead Partner at Flensburg University of Applied Sciences planned the new event – a great success.
Pitches of different organizations
After welcoming words of Prof. Dr. Peeter Ross (Tallinn University of Technology) and Prof. Dr. Bosco Lehr (Flensburg University of Applied Sciences) the presentations started. In the beginning the prevention approaches of the Estonian government have been presented as well as the cooperation between the Estonian Health Insurance Fund and small and medium sized enterprises (SME). A lot of questions, asked in the chat tool and answered by the presenters, have shown the high interest of the participants for the approaches of the small Baltic country.
After that Grete Kikas (Society of Estonian Family Doctors), who presented the meeting, led to the pitched of the SMEs. Beside two Estonian SMEs, the Finnish company MariCare was represented in the pitches. MariCare offers a sensor technology for elderly people that want to stay at home as long as possible.
MediKeep, an electronic inventory solution for the home pharmacy, aims to make the drug management easier for everyone.
Importance of international meetings
Following to the presentation of the health game that improves the care for children with chronical illnesses, Kadri Haljas (Triumf Health) appealed relating to the Corona pandemic: “The focus currently has been on informing and supporting adults in the crisis situation, children rely on the resources of their parents. Considering the limited number of pediatric mental health experts in Estonia (and globally), the need to utilize digital tools to prevent mental health conditions is urgent.”
This aspect makes clear how important transnational exchange is – even in times of crisis or especially than.
“It is a great success, how innovative digital health apps could be discussed internationally, thanks to the excellent organization of the project partners working together in BaltCityPrevention”, summarized Prof. Lehr at the end of the conference and expressed thanks to all participants.
Because of the positive feedback about the webinar, the project partners decided in the following internal meeting to provide a live stream of the final conference in Turku this August.
In this way more people from different countries will have the opportunity to participate without travelling. So, the knowledge out of the project can be spread broader.
About BaltCityPrevention:
Current prevention measures are often ineffective, since the methods are not tailored to specific user needs. In BaltCityPrevention 14 partners from 7 countries will test a more participatory and user-oriented approach to develop and implement prevention and health promotion interventions.
New technologies will be employed in the planning procedures and also as innovative tools for prevention purposes. The participation of the users and the co-creation process are key elements of this new intervention model. The prevention interventions are offered by public health authorities (e.g. health care and social departments in municipalities) and address people with different health issue.
More information: www.baltcityprevention.eu