UOC spearheads the first remote health monitoring system for older patients in the Pyrenees

In the Pyrenees, the journey to a hospital can often take longer than the medical treatment itself. An ageing population and vast distances frequently necessitate the transfer and admission of older individuals purely for observation or a single diagnostic test. The RemoteCare project, spearheaded by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), aims to transform this situation. It proposes a remote monitoring system that will enable real-time tracking of a patient's health in their own home, eliminating the need for travel. This will be the first model of its kind to be trialled in an emergency department and across two distinct healthcare systems in Catalonia and Andorra. 

A shared challenge across the mountain range

The rural and mountainous areas spanning the Pyrenean border face common structural issues, including low population density, an ageing demographic, a shortage of medical personnel, limited equipment, and challenging climatic conditions that impede access to healthcare. The consequence is well-documented: patients occupying hospital beds solely for monitoring, thereby reducing availability for more critical cases.

"We have a significant rate of population ageing and considerable distances to travel to reach a hospital. This sometimes means we have to transfer older patients for a single test or assessment, which involves more travel time than the actual care itself. That is why we believe that projects such as telemonitoring allow for more effective observation without patients having to travel," explained Oriol Yuguero, a researcher with the Ethics, Equity and Digital Tools for Health Improvement (e-RLab) group, affiliated with the eHealth Centre, territorial managing director of the Hospital Universitari Arnau de Vilanova and Gestió de Serveis Sanitaris (Healthcare Services Management), and the project's clinical lead.

How it works: the cloud, sensors and real-time alerts

"We aim to enable healthcare personnel to monitor patients remotely, without requiring their presence in the hospital. To achieve this, we utilize devices that track multiple indicators, generating a real-time clinical overview. This information is processed on a server, which allows doctors to access data at any time and even receive alerts when there's any change," explained Eduard Álvarez, the project's principal investigator and a coordinator of the Urbanization, Commerce and Sustainable Logistics (URBANLOG) group at the UOC-DIGIT research centre.

Its pioneering nature encompasses two key aspects. "It's the first remote monitoring system for emergency patients – it has been tested in other specialities, but never in this service – and it's the first time we aim to test it across regions, which means different operating systems and action protocols," said Álvarez, a member of the UOC's Faculty of Economics and Business.

The UOC team, responsible for technological development, has identified a series of challenges. Álvarez summarized them: "We'll need to transfer data from devices to a cloud server, ensuring privacy and ethical management of the information, integrate the dashboard into the hospital's existing computer systems to ensure scalability, and finally, integrate the operations of centres located across the border." 

Less travel and more comfort for older patients

The primary benefit for the patient is an enhanced quality of life. "Mainly comfort: avoiding disorientation and travel that can be a significant disruption, particularly if the patient has cognitive impairment or is very frail. Additionally, patients are often admitted solely to administer a treatment that, with adequate monitoring, could be managed at home," explained Yuguero.

Cristian Castillo, a co-coordinator of URBANLOG and associate professor in the same faculty as Álvarez, gave more details: "Today, in a mountain valley, having a patient under observation can mean an ambulance occupied for hours, a hospital bed blocked, and a journey that, due to distance and weather, is long and expensive. If we can make the observations remotely, we free up scarce resources and reserve them for those who truly need them. And here's the key: technology is only one part. The difficult, and decisive, aspect is the operation – redesigning circuits, protocols, and logistics so that remote monitoring integrates seamlessly into the daily routines of widely dispersed centres. Without this process engineering, even the best device is useless." 

Pilot project set to begin in residential centres

Validation will commence in a controlled environment. "We'll start with some residential centres, involving clinical staff, to avoid travel. If the system proves effective, we'll scale it up to more rural and widespread areas to assess its utility and reliability," said Yuguero. The solution and its resulting protocols will also be shared in a validation workshop with other hospitals in Spain, France and Andorra, to evaluate their applicability in diverse contexts and prepare for replication in other mountainous regions.

The consortium unites three essential areas: the clinical, with Hospital Universitari Arnau de Vilanova (ICS, Lleida) as the reference hospital; the cross-border, with Hospital Nostra Senyora de Meritxell (SAAS, Andorra), which provides interoperability between different health and legal frameworks; and the coordination and technological process, managed by the UOC, which leads the consortium.

The RemoteCare project (POCTEFA code EFA330/07) receives 65% co-financing from the European Union through the Interreg VI-A Spain-France-Andorra Programme (POCTEFA 2021-2027), which aims to strengthen economic and social integration in the border region between Spain, France and Andorra. The total project cost is €199,528.56, with €119,634.75 contributed by the ERDF. RemoteCare is part of the POCTEFA programme for small projects and has a duration of 24 months, from 5 January 2026 to 4 January 2028.

This project aligns with the UOC's research mission on Planetary Health and Wellbeing and UN Sustainable Development Goal 3 on Health and Wellbeing.

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