Maite Ferrando, PhD and CEO in KVeloce I+D+i has opened the presentation of the I2M initiative at the Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) Forum coinciding with the annual meeting of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIPAHA), both held in Aarhus last week.
The market of active and healthy ageing (AHA) is an important opportunity for all involved stakeholders, both private (enterprises, foundations) and public (health administration, social services, etc.) and for society as a whole: indeed, thanks to the expansion of effective therapies, the scientific development and technological breakthroughs, expected lifespan has increased and mortality has declined in all age ranges. Nevertheless, this also results in two trends: higher morbidity (that, is, a greater coincidence of different pathologies on an individual) and a higher number of years lived, but with conditions and chronic diseases.
The event celebrated in Aarhus brings together experts from different domains in the field of social and health innovation to help support ageing with a better quality of life.
Within this AHA frameworks, barriers and important gaps have been detected between the supply and the demand for innovative solutions.
Responding to them, the I2M Plan has been designed, aiming to define and to implement actions contributing to match service providers and consumers or users in the AHA market, thus accelerating innovation and pursuing a more cost-effective adoption of solutions at the EU level.
In addition, the regional Reference Sites were presented in Aarhus, recognised by their innovation level – both already implemented and planned- in active and healthy ageing, analysing and recognising the work made in the different regions, namely Valencia, Asturias (both with 4 stars), Murcia and others.
The topics discussed in Aarhus are directly aligned with our expertise in active ageing and innovation, health, integrated care, comorbidity, chronic diseases, empowerment and health literacy. This offers us the opportunity to update both our knowledge and our contact and action networks and enabling the projects we are involved in to reach excellent dissemination rates, especially those in the field of health and wellbeing from a broad perspective: EFFICHRONIC, DOCMA, TOOLS4BRAIN, INADVANCE, VALUECARE about which it will be spoken later), INVESTSOCIAL o COMSALUD.