JRA 1: Rehabilitation Supported by Technology

Objective: With this JRA, we primarily aim to gain insight on each Living Lab’s infrastructure and procedures in order to harmonize health and wellbeing Living Lab procedures and infrastructures in Europe and beyond, in particular in the context of rehabilitation. Secondly, we aim to investigate the potential of innovative technologies for rehabilitation through Living Lab methodologies. 

Methods: The study has a mixed-methods design comprising multiple phases. There are two main phases of data collection, co-creation (phase 1) and small-scale pilots (phase 2), which are preceded by a preliminary harmonization of procedures between the different international Living Labs. An intermediate phase further allows to implement minor adjustments to the intervention or protocol depending on the input that was obtained in the co-creation phase. Six small-scale pilots using innovative technologies for intervention or data collection will be performed across four countries. A third and final phase involves Delphi procedures to reach consensus on harmonized procedures and protocols.  

Results: Phase 1 data collection will begin in March 2022 while phase 2 data collection will startin June 2022. Results will include output of the co-creation sessions, small-scale pilots and advice on harmonizing procedures and protocols for health and wellbeing Living Labs focusing on rehabilitation.  

Conclusions: The knowledge gained by the execution of this research will lead to harmonized procedures and protocols in a rehabilitation context for health and wellbeing Living Labs in Europe and beyond. In addition to the harmonized procedures and protocols in rehabilitation, we will also be able to provide new insights for improving implementation of innovative technologies in rehabilitation.  

Keywords: Living Lab, Rehabilitation, Technology, Harmonization, Co-creation, Small-scale real-life testing 

JRA 2: Transitional Care

Objective: This study primarily aims to evaluate the feasibility and benefit of collecting multichannel data across Living Labs on the topic of transitional care and to harmonize the data processes and collection. Secondly, we aim to investigate the collection and use of digital biomarkers and explore initial patterns in the data that demonstrate the potential to predict transition outcomes such as readmissions and adverse events. 

Methods: The current research protocol presents a multi-center, prospective, observational cohort study that will consist of three phases, running consecutively in multiple sites: a co-creation phase, a testing and simulation phase and a transnational pilot phase. The co-creation phase aims to build a common understanding among different sites, investigate the differences of hospitalization discharge management among countries and the willingness of different stakeholders to use technological solutions in the transitional care process. The testing and simulation phase aims to explore ways of integrating observation of a patient’s clinical condition, patient involvement and discharge education in transitional care. The objective of the simulation phase is to evaluate the feasibility and the barriers that are faced by a healthcare professional in assessing transition readiness. The transnational pilot phase takes input from co-creation and testing and stimulation phase. The aim is to pilot the already designed activities from previous phases and collect data to conduct a first predictive analysis.  

Results: The co-creation phase will be completed by April 2022. The testing and simulation phase will begin in September 2022 and will partially overlap with the deployment of the transnational pilot phase that will start the same month. The data collection of the transnational pilots will be finalized by the end of June 2023. Data processing is expected to be completed by March 2024. The results will consist of guidelines and implementation pathway for large scale study and the analysis for identifying initial patterns in the acquired data. 

Conclusions: The knowledge acquired though this research will lead to harmonized procedures and data collection for Living Labs that support transitions in care. In addition, this research contributes to the increase in capacity to perform Big Data analytics while accounting for each local context and across Living Labs.  

Keywords: Living Lab, Co-creation, Transitional care, Technology, Feasibility study 

JRA 3: Everyday Living Environments

Objective: The main aim is to co-create and test harmonized research protocol for developing big data driven hybrid personas – hypothetical user archetypes created to represent a user community. Secondly, utilization and applicability of innovative technologies is investigated in context of various everyday living and living lab environments. 

Methods: In phase 1 surveys and structured interviews are utilized to identifying the most suitable living lab methods, tools and instruments for health-related research among VITALISE-project living labs (N=10). A series of online co-creation workshops and iterative co-writing process are applied to define the initial protocols. In phase 2 five small-scale case studies are carried by out to test the co-created research protocols in various real-life everyday living settings and living lab infrastructures. In phase 3 a cross-case analysis grounded on semi-structured interviews is conducted to identify the challenges and benefits of using the proposed research protocols. Furthermore, a series of co-creation workshops and consensus Delphi process is carried out in parallel to co-create and validate the acceptance of the defined harmonized research protocols among wider living lab community. 

Results: As of September 30, 2021, project deliverables “Ethics and safety manual” and “Living lab standard version 1” have been submitted to European Commission review process. The study will be finished by March 2024. 

Conclusions: The outcome of this research will lead to harmonized procedures and protocols in context of big data driven hybrid personas development among health and wellbeing living labs in Europe and beyond. Harmonized protocols enable living labs to exploit similar research protocols, devices, hardware and software for interventions and complex data collection purposes. Economies of scale and improved use of resources will speed-up and improve the research quality and offer novel possibilities for open data sharing, multidisciplinary research and comparative studies beyond current practices. Case studies provide also novel insights for implementing innovative technologies in context of everyday living lab research. 

Keywords: Living lab; Everyday living; Technology; Big data; Harmonization; Personas; Small-scale real–life testing