TRENTINOSALUTE4.0 wins the “Patient’s Digital Health Award 2020” – “COVID-19 solutions section” – with the TREC PEDIATRIA app

The award ceremony for the “Patients’ Digital Health Awards – Patients reward digital innovation” (PDHA) competition was held on Friday, October 16, 2020, that awarded the TreC Televisita Pediatria platform for the “Covid-19 Solutions” category., Developed by TrentinoSalute4.0, the Competence Center on Digital Health of the Autonomous Province of Trento, in collaboration with pediatricians. The remote visiting project was co-funded by the Trentino Research Valorization Foundation (VRT).

The PDHA competition, promoted by the Digital Health Academy in cooperation with 50 patient associations, aims to identify and reward digital innovations that can make a difference in the lives of people who live with the disease every day.

Now in its third edition, 68 initiatives were presented for the award but, in the end, only 47 nominations came to the attention of the jury in the three different categories: “Existing project”, “Covid-19 solution”, “idea”. In addition to Italy, 12 countries presented their prohects: England, Germany, Finland, Estonia, Norway, Portugal, Switzerland, Greece, Romania, Lithuania, Belgium and Malta.

“A particularly important recognition especially if we consider that the solutions presented in the competition were evaluated by the patient associations” – Stefania Segnana, councilor for health, social policies, disability and family said, adding that “This award makes us understand that we are moving in the right direction, i.e. building and co-building a health service open to citizens and patients. The contribution that they themselves, through associations, can make is precious for us, as their first-hand experience can help us steer choices and energies towards solutions that know how to tangibly meet their needs”.

The TreC Televisita Pediatria project was created to respond to the need that emerged during the Covid-19 emergency, to keep patients in touch with doctors even if remotely. Throughout child development years, pediatricians meet with families regularly, not only for diagnosis and treatment, but also for monitoring the achievement of growth milestones, and represent a point of reference for families.

TrentinoSalute4.0 has therefore developed a technology platform that allows communication (remote visiting) and sharing (messaging system) of information and material between the doctor and the child’s family, within a secure technological environment integrated with the Trento Province Health System’s information system.

, A simple and effective tool that enables patients’ families and pediatricians operanting in the Province, to maintain the relationship alive and to meet the need of families to receive care and advice also from home and when going to the doctor’s office is not feasible.

“I especially thank” – Stefania Segnana concluded- “the pediatricians and families who contributed, from the design stage to the development and testing of the platform implemented by the joint PAT/APSS/FBK laboratory, and which will soon be available to all pediatricians and families, as required by the agreement signed within the Trento Province pediatricians committee”.

The award committee, chaired by Antonietta Pannella (president) and Cristina Cenci (vice president) of the Digital Health Academy, was made up of 50 Patient Associations, experts in patient engagement, digital health, patient innovation and healthcare policies.

The awards ceremony took place on Friday, October 16, in a live streaming event broadcast on the Digital Health Academy Facebook and YouTube channels and on the website www.pdha.it, where the video contributions of the winners were broadcast.For TS4.0, Diego Conforti, director of the PAT innovation and research office, attended the event.

“It was not an easy choice for the associations, but in the times we are living there are very few things that are easy” – Goffredo Freddi, director of the MSD – Italy Foundation, said during the award ceremony. “Patient associations proved able to take up the challenge not only with the many projects that have been carried out during this difficult times of pandemic, but also looking to the future through the production of recommendations for the development of digital health that is increasingly tailored to people”. He added: “We are now immersed in a world that is increasingly “phigital”, i.e. a world that combines both physical and digital processes and we are all called to do our part”.

The PDHA award

Patients’ Digital Health Awards is a competition promoted by the Digital Health Academy in collaboration with 50 Patient Associations, with the aim of identifying and rewarding digital innovations that can make a difference in the lives of people who live with the disease every day. One of a kind, in Italy and in Europe. And this year 50 associations have been involved – in collaboration with the Digital Health Academy and the contribution of the Msd Foundation – to scout and reward those digital innovations that affect the quality of life. For the first time, the award involved two important European networks for the protection of citizens’ and patients’ rights and international experts and saw the endorsement of the global network Allied for Startups (Afs). The solutions presented in the competition were evaluated directly by the patient associations. There were three categories:

• “Existing project” category
• “Covid-19 Solution” category
• “Ideas” category

The initiatives submitted to the competition were 68 and 47 of them were admitted for evaluation by patient associations. Of these, 29 are Italian while 18 are from other countries (UK, Germany, Finland, Estonia, Norway, Portugal, Switzerland, Greece, Romania, Lithuania, Belgium and Malta).

Award winners

The winners were: for the first category, PinkTrainer (The Netherlands), an e-Health platform that provides personalized exercise and nutrition plans to cancer patients; for the second category, TreC Pediatria (Italy), a platform that allows communication (remote visiting) and sharing of information between doctor and family; for the third category, Horpheus (Italy), an artificial intelligence system (software and hardware) to predict nighttime seizures in children.

The cash prize for the “Covid-19 Solution” category amounts to 4,000 euros.