Working to develop interdisciplinary projects in eHealth
The First Internal Workshop Supporting Interdisciplinary Research in eHealth, organised by the eHealth Center (eHC) and the UOC Knowledge Transfer and Research Support Office (OSRT), was very well received by the UOC research community.
The University’s academic and research staff participated in an internal seminar, with presentations of a variety of case studies where eHealth was used to respond to a specific need or social problem. This was followed by a working session.
The UOC’s Vice President for Strategic Planning and Research, Marta Aymerich, gave an opening speech in which she underlined the eHealth Center’s commitment to "work together with the various UOC faculties and research groups in order to develop transdisciplinary eHealth projects that respond to the needs of society".
Presentations were then given by the heads of each of the eHealth Center’s Areas of Knowledge: Manuel Armayones in the area of education, empowerment and participation in health; Carme Carrión in the area of design and assessment of interventions in e-health, and Jordi Conesa in the area of health data science.
The schedule continued with case studies presented by external data science experts Andrea Barbiero and Mara Balestrini, as well as human motility sciences expert Éder Peña. Andrea Barbiero outlined the creation of “Salus.coop – The citizen health data cooperative", which she founded alongside Mara Balestrini, who went on to talk about her experience with “Data generated by citizens: a lever for social change”, an initiative for the empowerment of citizens that has succeeded in obtaining visible results. Éder Peña, a senior lecturer at the University of Caldas (Colombia), gave a presentation on his study "Mobility, physical activity and living space for the elderly", conducted in Manizales, Colombia in 2016, which demonstrates the relationship that exists between older people’s levels of physical activity and their living space.
The presentations were followed by working sessions that included a variety of activities. The participants were split into three groups, each of which included an eHC Area of Knowledge manager and a principal researcher from a UOC eHealth project. The activities were designed to garner debate among the UOC researchers regarding interdisciplinary contributions. Work was also carried out on identifying various new eHealth projects which address the needs of today's society. With the support of the OSRT and the eHC, these projects will be studied in detail and actions will be taken in the near future to evaluate their funding and realization.
In line with the 2017-2020 strategic plan, support to identify project ideas and to prepare funding applications is to be prioritized for all projects relating to eHealth and e-learning.