EmERGE

EmERGE is a project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Researcher and Innovation Programme. It will develop a mHealth platform to enable self-management of HIV in patients with stable disease.

The platform will build upon and integrate the existing mHealth solutions operated by pioneering healthcare providers in the UK and Spain and apply a rigorous co-design approach to ensure patient and clinician input to the solution. The platform will provide users with web based and mobile device applications which interface securely with relevant medical data and facilitate remote access to key healthcare providers.

The Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals Trust will co-ordinate the study with University of Brighton leading on the socio technical evaluation of the EmERGE platform.

Visit the EmERGE project website

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The EmERGE Project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020. Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement Number 643736.

Project timeframe

The project will run from May 2015 until May 2020.

Project aims

Based on prior work showing a high uptake rate and use of mHealth in HIV patient populations, EmERGE aims to demonstrate the benefits to patients and simultaneous increases in cost-effectiveness for healthcare providers by reducing face-to-face consultations, estimated at 6000 saved per year within this study alone.

Patient reported outcomes will be agreed and used in the assessment and development of the system which also aims to increase adherence and enable frailty to be reported using mHealth technology. Innovation will be given priority from the beginning by developing new business models of care provision, targeting key stakeholders in the EU health provider sector, including policymakers and clinicians, while eliciting demand from patients to highlight and initiate the widespread implementation and compensation of mHealth solutions within the timeframe of the project.

For the socio technical evaluation of the EmERGE platform we will:

identify, and share learning about, the social and organisational factors that facilitate and/or inhibit the development and implementation of the new platform and desired outcomes across different sites
design and implement a context (site)-sensitive co-design process to fully involve patients and clinicians in the development of the new platform in all study sites
improve the usability and acceptability of the new platform amongst key users (clinicians and patients) through user engagement in the co-design process
enhance probability for improved patient outcomes through increased usability and acceptance of new platform amongst key users.

Project findings and impact

Guidelines and policy briefs will be produced to evidence the benefits and disseminate the lessons learned to support the uptake of mHealth for self-management of other chronic diseases.

Research team