The TIC Salut Social Foundation aids knowledge transfer in the application of new technologies to two Territorial Specialisation and Competitiveness Projects

The TIC Salut Social Foundation is participating in the Mataró and Bages Territorial Specialisation and Competitiveness Projects (PECT), as an organisation that specialises in the application of new technologies. Its task is to aid knowledge transfer in the health and social fields, and disseminate the various tools and technological innovations that the PECTs carry out.

PECT Mataró

The ageing of the population, due to increased life expectancy, is one of the main social challenges for developed countries. Life expectancy in Catalonia is one of the highest in the world. As we age, the prevalence of chronic diseases and the need for health care increases: people over 65 account for 18% of the population and consume 80% of health care resources.

The social and economic challenges in the field of public health go beyond population ageing and extend to new profiles and needs. These include calculating levels of health care demand and supply, promoting preventive policies, digital learning by population groups at risk of exclusion, and developing and implementing e-health, among others. This PECT is aimed at contributing to providing a response to these challenges.

PECT Mataró is aimed at developing and implementing innovative solutions to support active ageing and care for people in situations of frailty, dependency, chronic illness or disability. To do this, it is setting in motion processes for research, technological development and the generation and transfer of knowledge between the agents involved, as a basis for creating employment and economic activity with high added value.

Through this project we also want to improve the productive capacity and competitiveness of agents and companies in the social and health sector in the Maresme area so that they are generators of employment and wealth. Moreover, it is also intended to move towards sustainability and research in the health sector. Another of the secondary objectives is to promote Mataró and the Maresme area as benchmarks in innovation and knowledge both nationally and internationally.

The director of the TIC Salut Social Foundation, Eugeni Fernández, has recently taken part in a workshop to discuss the strategic lines and operational objectives of the PECT and the future of its operations at the CareCityLab.

PECT Bages

PECT Bages seeks to improve the quality of life and promote the social inclusion of the group of people with dependency and chronic diseases, making them active agents for their own health.  The sustained increase in population ageing and extreme ageing, the main risk factor for the appearance and development of the vast majority of chronic diseases, has turned Bages into one of the areas where the impact of dependency and chronic illness is more identifiable. This project was created to respond to this growing problem.

To do this, the project is promoting a set of structures with a high impact in the health and social fields. These include the Bages Dependency and Chronic Illness Observatory, the entrepreneurial platform “ehealthinking“, the Business Angels organisation of Manresa-Bages, the SMART Care Community public participation platform, and the Health and Social Innovation Cluster.

The project has already made progress such as the development of a telemedicine centre, for which two use cases have been chosen: mental disorders and ischaemic heart disease. Moreover, a mobile app is also being developed to give patients more autonomy. This app will provide a repository of services from targeted and specialised professionals to provide solutions to dependent people. It will have a library of audiovisual information resources that will support the management of the most relevant challenges for each group, as well as a list of adapted leisure activities.