The online workshop was held on 8th of October and was attended by more than 30 people from the Basque Health ecosystem.

Active and healthy ageing is the process of developing and maintaining a level of functional capacity that makes it possible to achieve well-being in old age. Functional capacity is understood as the set of those capabilities of a person that allow him/her to be and do what he/she considers important for him/herself at a given moment in life. Functional capacity is composed of the intrinsic capacity of the person, the characteristics of the environment that affect that capacity, and the interactions between the person and those characteristics. Therefore, the ability to live in environments that support the maintenance of intrinsic capacity and functional ability will be fundamental to healthy ageing.

GATEKEEPER aims to address the challenge of improving the quality of life and intrinsic capacity of older people. To this end, it seeks to improve the provision of health services and care through the deployment of advanced information and communication technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence and Big Data. The Basque Country, a pilot region, is represented in the project by Kronikgune, the Biocruces Bizkaia Health Research Institute and Osakidetza. They are responsible for five use cases, through with the aim of studying the usefulness and effectiveness of these technologies in specific situations.

As part of the activities being developed to define the use cases for the Basque Country, these three entities with the collaboration of the University of Utrecht, have organised the workshop “Co-creating futures for better ageing at home”. The aim was to identify the needs of older people related to intrinsic capacity, and to look for innovative solutions to promote active and independent ageing at home.

Professionals of Osakidetza from different areas took part in the workshop. Hospital care, Primary Care, pharmacy, managers, specialists from IT service, health innovation, research institutes and BIOEF were represented. Technological companies such as Init Health, Legit Health and Edai also took part in the workshop. In addition, the BEAZ and the Adinberri Foundation, which promote innovation in the service for healthy ageing, collaborated with the promoters of new innovative business initiatives.

During the workshop, different perspectives were shared on the aspects and characteristics that innovative solutions should have in order to promote a better ageing of the population. In addition, different future scenarios for a high quality of life ageing supported by ICTs have been developed. During the workshop there have been identified main needs, values and requirements to drive the development of technological solutions. These will be taken into account in the use cases and will allow to boost the strategy of active ageing of our elders in all its physical, mental and environmental aspects. Participants highlighted that the applications should be simple, attractive, targeted and adapted to older people. They also underlined that technologies can provide opportunities for people living alone, and help people to increase mental skills or self-esteem. Accessibility and training and information for both end users and health professionals are other important aspects to be taken into account when developing and offering innovative solutions for the elderly people.

If you want to know more about the project visit the official website: https://www.gatekeeper-project.eu/

If you want to join the GATEKEEPER ecosystem you can register at: https://www.gatekeeper-project.eu/community-of-interest