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BOOSTING INNOVATION IN CONTINENCE CARE IN NURSING HOMES
Advanced technologies have the potential to improve the care quality of residents in nursing homes. It becomes truly innovative when the focus shifts from managing incontinence with absorbents to promoting continence with proper training. That is the main goal of the new Erasmus+ project PROCON. Professor Javier Jerez Roig from the University of Vic-Central University of Catalonia (UVic-UCC) and Hannelore Strauven from the e-Media Research Lab at Group T Campus explain.
The problem is not new. More than half of residents in nursing homes suffer from incontinence. During the day, 20% of care provision is devoted to it and at night it rises to 70%.
Many of the periodic check-ups by staff are either too early or too late. In both cases, valuable time is lost and residents experience inconvenience that could have been avoided. Previous e-Media Research Lab projects, such as imec.ICON project DISCRETE, have already worked on an intelligent incontinence management system for just-in-time care through a combination of sensors, intelligent infrastructure and software applications.
Human-centered approach
"Current technologies are primarily designed to keep residents dry," notes Hannelore. "They provide little or no active support to achieve or maintain continence." In her PhD thesis, which she defended in September 2024, Hannelore proposed a research approach with the main goal of promoting continence. In doing so, she shifted the focus from a technical to a human-centred approach with a focus on trust and dignity.
Prof Jerez-Roig was a member of the jury assessing Hannelore's PhD. He is Head of the Research Group on Methodology, Methods, Models and Outcomes of Health and Social Sciences at UVic-UCC and Care Area Coordinator of the Institute for Research and Innovation in Life and Health Sciences in Central Catalonia (IRIS-CCC). Prof Jerez-Roig is also the Principal Investigator of the international PROCON partnership which, besides his university and KU Leuven, involves five labour market actors (including two tech companies), two other universities, two vocational education and training providers, a non-governmental organisation and an affiliated research institute located in Spain, Italy, Finland, Belgium and Canada. With the Canadian University of Alberta as a partner, the project far exceeds European borders.
"PROCON stands for 'Boosting innovation, entrepreneurship and training for PROmoting CONtinence in nursing homes'," Prof Jerez-Roig explains. "Together with our partners, we want to develop and disseminate a set of tools and recommendations to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in nursing homes."
The project consists of six work packages , each with its own objectives and deliverables. WP 2, for example, includes the development of a technological solution to support continence care through sensor data analysis, as well as the co-creation of a course to train future care providers and engineers in innovation and entrepreneurship in healthcare using the European Entre Comp framework.
Courses
"WP 3 will enhance new skills ad address skill mismatches by co-creating two multidisciplinary courses for healthcare professionals and students," continued Hannelore. "The first is about resilience skills and flexible work practices, the second deals more specifically with continence care in nursing homes."
To check the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention, a comprehensive pragmatic study will be conducted in Spain, Finland, Canada and Belgium in WP 4. WP 5 will focus on quality assurance and project evaluation. "Apart from the socio-economic impact, we also want to clearly identify the results we achieve in academia, long-term care and the labour market in general," Prof Jerez-Roig adds.
Finally, WP 6 includes the dissemination and exploitation of the results beyond the partnership. "This will include a virtual community of care providers and a continence care toolkit intended for nursing home residents and their relatives. Furthermore, we will also provide policy recommendations for enhancing continence in nursing homes," Hannelore says.
Impact
The PROCON project started in November 2024 and will last three years. It involves a budget of almost €1.5 million. The joint efforts of the partners should result in a framework of recommendations to boost innovation and entrepreneurship in nursing homes, a technological solution for continence and three free online and training courses, among other outputs. Just how high the bar has been set is shown by Prof Jerez- Roig's ambition: in the long run, PROCON results should reach at least 10,000 people.
-Yves Persoons
