Abstract:

Co-Care is a project co-funded by the European Commission under the Erasmus+ Knowledge Alliance program (https://co-care.eu/), aiming to stimulate user-led design in developing ICT-based Alzheimer care solutions. One of its main outcomes is a training course for undergraduate Health Sciences and Engineering students resulting in an innovative example of entrepreneurship and innovation in classrooms involving users and companies collaborating with students and teachers. A pilot of this training course was conducted by each partner country (Portugal, United Kingdom, Spain). The goal of this paper is to describe the experience of the Co-Care pilot training conducted in Portugal, at Instituto Politécnico de Setúbal (IPS).

The course plan had a fixed structure with modules covering topics such as needs analysis, user-centered design, ICT-based health solutions, ways of communication and reaching Informal Caregivers of Alzheimer’s Patients (ICAPs), and evaluation of the impact of ICT-based health solutions. However, each pilot was adapted to the regional context concerning Health Technology Assessment (HTA), Data Protection, and Informal Care Policies. Students adopted the Design Thinking methodology towards a user-centered design approach to create innovative solutions for ICAPs needs, presenting a strong practical component. At IPS, the course was offered to Bachelor students and a total of 11 students were recruited, with five from Health Sciences and six from Computer Sciences. Ten ICAPs were recruited with the support of Alzheimer Portugal, while three ICT professionals and four Health professionals have also participated in the course.

The course granted a total of four ECTS (European Credit Transfer System), it began in March 2021, and finished in July 2021, with students’ final presentations to stakeholders and the scholar community. It was delivered entirely online due to the pandemic situation, supported by Moodle, Teams, and Colibri Zoom platforms. Students developed various activities in synchronous sessions and autonomous work for each training module. Several assessment tools have been used, such as case-based activities, online quizzes, follow-up meetings with tutors, video portfolios, and public presentations. Three co-creation teams of students have been formed considering gender, disciplinary field, and Belbin roles. Each team created one ICT-based solution in the form of an mHealth application.

The prototypes designed by the three teams were:
(1) Care-Coach, aiming at promoting ICAPs’ quality of life, focusing on needs, such as: organization of daily activities, physical activity and well-being, and communication with health professionals;
(2) Rent-a-Care, aiming at providing caring services and support for ICAPs’ daily needs, based on their interaction with professionals that offer services they need;
(3) Medi-Control, with the goal of supporting ICAPs in the management of medication, namely administration, stock management, prescription, and information searching.

These three solutions were evaluated very positively by a panel of ICAPs and ICT professionals. A final survey was also applied to the students involved in the experience in order to receive their feedback about the pilot course. Most of them were very satisfied with both the skills developed and the opportunity to work in in a multidisciplinary co-creation setting.

Keywords:

Co-creation, ICT-based Alzheimer care solutions, Multidisciplinary teams, Pilot course.