DCU Business School academics to play key role in €5.9M EU funded GERONTE project

Wed, 04/11/2020 – Two DCU Business School academics are part of the team leading research for GERONTE, a Horizon2020 project which has recently been awarded over €5.9M in funding from the European Union.

GERONTE is a streamlined geriatric and oncological evaluation based on Information Communication (IC) technology for holistic patient-oriented healthcare management for older multimorbid patients.

Prof. Regina Connolly and Dr. Paul Davis from DCU Business School along with Prof. Anthony Staines from the School of Nursing, Psychotherapy and Community Health, all members of the Centre for eIntegrated Care (CeIC) at DCU, are leading the research.

This project will see a combining of expertise across the domains of public health and public sector digital transformation for the purpose of leveraging digital technology to improve the health care management and outcomes of co-morbid patients.

Prof. Daire Keogh, President of DCU, said

“This is a highly innovative project that has the potential to greatly improve older cancer patients’ care and quality of life.

It’s expected that one in four people in Europe will be aged over 65 by 2050. This stark statistic underscores the importance of DCU-led research initiatives such as GERONTE in exploring new avenues for improving cancer care for older people.”

Prof. Regina Connolly said,

“At DCU we are using our research to transform society. GERONTE will empower healthcare professionals, enabling them to harness digital technologies to co-partner with patients and their carers. In doing so, it will accelerate progress towards a patient-centred model of healthcare.”

Prof. Anthony Staines said,

“This project links together a range of skills across DCU from nursing, ICT, and management, to develop a highly innovative and scalable solution to a challenging problem in delivering care to older people affected by cancer. It showcases the interdisciplinary and applied use of advanced skills, a type of work which characterizes much of what DCU does.”

ABOUT HORIZON 2020
Horizon 2020 is the biggest EU Research and Innovation programme ever with nearly €80 billion of funding available over 7 years (2014 to 2020). It promises more breakthroughs, discoveries and world-firsts by taking great ideas from the lab to the market. Horizon 2020 is the financial instrument implementing the Innovation Union, a Europe 2020 flagship initiative aimed at securing Europe’s global competitiveness.

ABOUT THE CENTRE FOR e-INTEGRATED CARE
The Centre for eIntegrated Care is engaged with international research across EU countries and the USA. It aspires to lead, inform and develop national and international eHealth practices, policies and initiatives. Opened in May 2018, it combines health and social care research findings to deliver connected healthcare in order to improve patient outcomes.