Students, elderly people and professionals look for innovative solutions for healthy ageing

The needs identified by the elderly people at the Casal de Gent Gran-Pomar social centre, and which the students will work on are:

• Detecting high-risk emotional states, especially due to living alone. One of the keys to healthy ageing is having the right frame of mind.
• Maintaining healthy self-care habits, such as personal and home hygiene, eating properly, medication compliance, etc.
• Keeping elderly people active through the use of entertaining or therapeutic digital applications and devices.

These challenges have been put to vocational training and university students at various centres (Centre d’Estudis Secundaris Joan Maragall in Badalona, Escola de Noves Tecnologies Interactives, Escola Universitària d’Infermeria Gimbernat and the UOC) so that they can work on them to find innovative solutions.

The students will use an online platform provided by the UOC to develop their innovative proposals for addressing the challenges. An expert committee will choose the finalist ideas, which will be presented at a working seminar that will be attended by all the people involved in the project. This event will be held on Saturday, 19 November, from 9 am to 2 pm, at the Centre Cívic la Salut in Badalona.

During this seminar, the competition's winning proposals will be chosen. The team with the most innovative solution will be able to develop it with the support of HUBBIK, the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya's innovation and entrepreneurship support platform, with the goal of turning it into a specific tool (app, electronic device, etc.). It will be given a cash prize of €1,000 and will be able to take part in the Stanford University Design Challenge, a competition organized by Stanford University to foster the creation of tools to improve elderly people's quality of life. The proposals selected in second and third places will be able to present their projects at the World of Health IT (WoHIT). And they will receive cash prizes of €500 and €300, respectively. The hashtag for following the competition will be #CO3aging.

World of Health IT, featuring Europe's best practices in digital health

The World of Health IT Conference & Exhibition will be held in Barcelona on 21 and 22 November and will showcase the best practices in health and new technologies currently implemented in Europe. The event will include sessions on mobile health, genomics, cybersecurity and technology management at hospitals. The speakers will include Richard Daniels, Vice President of Kaiser Permanente – the world's most innovative health organization; the rapper doctor ZdoggMd; and representatives of digital health policies from Estonia, Norway and Catalonia, among others. The TicSalut Foundation will present its new health app certification programme.

HIMMS Europe

HIMSS Europe is a major player and opinion leader in the use of technology to transform the health industry. As an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to innovation, HIMSS Europe brings together key players from the health and health care industries through events, content and analyses. The goal of the communities that are part of the organization is to help health systems define their ICT strategies and improve the health industry's services. Founded in 1961, HIMSS comprises more than 60,000 members, 600 companies and more than a million health and new technology professionals who are leading innovative initiatives around the world.

Badalona Serveis Assistencials

Badalona Serveis Assistencials is a municipal health organization that provides health and dependent adult care services in Barcelonès Nord and Baix Maresme. With ten centres and more than a thousand professionals, it provides coverage for a reference population of 435,000 people.

Aging 2.0

Aging 2.0 is a global innovation network whose mission is to accelerate innovation to improve elderly people's lives around the world. It connects, trains and supports innovators through its communities. Its Barcelona chapter is assisting in the organization of CO3.