The Northern Ireland RS thematic workshop main findings

On 1 October the RSCN facilitated a workshop in Belfast as a side event to the World Health Organisation (WHO) International Healthy Cities Conference. The workshop was funded through the Horizon 2020 WE4AHA Project and its topic was technology and scaling up innovation in health and social care to support active and healthy ageing.


The event comprised four sessions:

  • A welcome, outlining the objectives of the EIP-AHA Reference Site Collaborative Network (RSCN) in promoting innovation to support active and healthy ageing; and announcing the human rights of older people as the theme of the International Day of Older Persons 2018;
  • A session showcasing use of technology in supporting older people, featuring presentations on the Andalusian Telecare Service, an overview of technology-enabled care in Scotland, safety services for the elderly in Kuopio, Finland, and a pilot study to evaluate the use of smart technologies involving 30 elderly households in Khon Kaen Province in Thailand;
  • A session showcasing cross Reference Site collaboration successes, featuring twinning on medicines optimisation undertaken between the Medicines Optimisation Innovation Centre in Northern Ireland and the Catalan Institute of Health; and
  • A session on innovative procurement, showcasing how pre-commercial procurement has been used in Northern Ireland to develop new medicines adherence solutions; and an ongoing Horizon 2020 international pre-commercial procurement project aimed at identifying new solutions for post-stroke care.

WHO Healthy Cities provided a number of speakers for the event, including representatives from the City of Kuopio in Finland and Khon Kaen Province in Thailand. Of particular interest were the insights of Manfred Huber, Coordinator for Healthy Ageing, Disability and Long Term Care at the WHO Regional Office for Europe, on the achievements of the age-friendly movement in Europe and the opportunities and challenges ahead. The workshop also included speakers from a wide range of Reference Sites – Andalusia, Scotland, Kuopio, Catalonia and Northern Ireland. The session on innovative procurement incorporated a presentation on the MAGIC Horizon 2020 project, which is using pre-commercial procurement to develop innovative solutions for post-stroke care and involves the Basque region and Italy.

The key message from the workshop was that technology and innovation are central to the promotion of active and healthy ageing approaches, and to the long term sustainability and efficiency of health and social care systems. Utilising the expertise of the RSCN/Reference Site twinning opportunities to share knowledge and facilitate collaborative working were also highlighted as an effective means of scaling up best practice within Europe.

The feedback from audience participants has been very positive and the workshop has led to the identification of some future collaboration opportunities between individual Reference Sites.