Bielefeld – An international project meeting with scientists from the EU research project CAREPATH from several European countries (including Great Britain, Romania, Spain) will take place from 02.05. to 5.5.23 at the Klinikum Bielefeld – Rosenhöhe. The focus of the international project is the individual treatment of older people with multiple chronic diseases who live at home and have relatives who care for them.
“The project aims to research whether patients with chronic diseases or slight limitations such as forgetfulness can be better supported in their individual care by the CAREPATH platform developed in the project. The patients live at home and are cared for by their relatives,” says the chief physician at the geriatric clinic, Dr. medical Wolfgang Schmidt-Barzynski, study doctor and project manager for CAREPATH at the Bielefeld Clinic.
At the current project meeting, important formalities and agreements are first made, before the study staff then discusses the implementation of the clinical study over two days and brings themselves up to the same technical level and the technical staff practices the installation and interaction, as well as the connection of the internet-enabled devices. For this purpose, an apartment is simulated in a station that is currently empty. The project group from Bielefeld is responsible for monitoring the correct implementation of the study at all participating locations and will also use the meeting here to bring the city of Bielefeld a little closer to those involved. A guided city tour followed by a stop for refreshments is planned for one evening.
The clinical study of the CAREPATH project will start in October 2023, for which 26 study participants will be randomly assigned to the study or control group. The duration of participation per patient is 12 months, the participants must be 65 years or older and have a good understanding of German.
An individual treatment plan is drawn up for the study group, which takes particular age-related comorbidities (multimorbidity) of the patients into account.
The patients receive a tablet that reminds them, for example, to take prescribed medication and records other health parameters such as blood pressure or blood sugar measurement, weighing, oxygen measurements and step counting using a home monitoring platform.
This should enable early detection of health changes. The tablet and the home monitoring platform correspond to a doctor’s platform on which potential early warnings are received. This system does not replace emergency calls, but enables better collaboration between the patient, the family caring for them and the treating doctor, who thus receives better information for the periods between doctor visits.
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