2022 Conference Programme

9.00 am – 10.30 am CET

The importance of open platforms in technology for ageing and care

In the domains of Active and Healthy Ageing (AHA) and Active Assisted Living (AAL), an open platform is a system that allows the integration of and substitutability between applications, services and devices from multiple vendors. It is an open digital ecosystem that connects the individual users to health or social care provisions, to lifestyle and prevention applications, and home health and digital health technology to support their independent living, healthy lifestyles and participation in society.
This session will look at successful development, implementation and benefits of such systems from a platform provider and care provider perspective. The session will also discuss what the EU has done and is doing in this domain and why it considers open platforms as an important building block.

Moderator: Ad van Berlo, Manager R&D, Smart Homes & Platform Uptake.eu 

• Martijn Schuurmans, CEO, Eurocom Group – Open Care Connect
• Christoph Klein, Policy Officer, European Commission
• Bart Degryse, Project Manager Care Innovation, Wit-Gele Kruis West-Vlaanderen
• Luc Nicolas, eHealth Project Officer, EHTEL & OPEN DEI

5.15 pm – 6.15 pm CET

To what extent is interoperability a tool for competitiveness in the silver economy?

Interoperability is critical to healthcare innovation. As such, to be successful, innovators must ensure that their solutions and applications can fit with existing infrastructures of healthcare institutions and that they provide and exploit healthcare data in an appropriate and secure manner. What are the keys to designing interoperable health innovations? How to deal with data security and privacy? How to ensure the interoperability of a device or a solution even before knowing its users? Has the COVID-19 pandemic removed some of the barriers to interoperability? What are the standards and novel solutions facilitating interoperability?

Moderator: Ad van Berlo, Manager R&D, Smart Homes & Platform Uptake.eu 

• Harriet Teare, Programme Director for the UK SPINE Knowledge Exchange, University of Oxford
• Jordi Piera Jiménez, Director of the Digital Health Strategy Office, Catalan Health Service
• Shahid Ali, Director, VitruCare by Dynamic Health Systems
• Blanca Jordan, Global Health and Life Science Product Owner for Interoperability, Atos

10.30 am – 11.30 am CET

Which funding sources to scale sustainable innovations for healthy ageing?

Innovation in the healthy ageing sector is diverse and characterised by different sub-sectors and business models. Funding sources can therefore be equally diverse, ranging from generalist funds to angel investors, public investments, and grants. While the money exists, the challenge remains to ensure that it is dedicated to key ageing-related issues and in a scalable way. This session intends to give an overview of the current state of investment in healthy ageing and on the main players investing in the sector. What are the sources of funding available and what are the key factors to attract investors´ attention? What kind of new funding models and Europe-wide collaborations would be most effective in scaling up new ideas and businesses? How to practically leverage public and private financial instruments and what can policy makers and governments do to further support them?

Moderator: Jackie Marshall-Cyrus, Innovation Strategy Consultant, Jackie Marshall-Cyrus & Associates Ltd 

• Mathieu Philippe, Co-Foundeur, Colville Capital Partners
• Irina Kalderon Libal, Policy Officer, Health Innovation and Ageing, European Commission
• Sergey Jakimov, Co-Founder, LongeVC
• George MacGinnis, Challenge Director, Healthy Ageing, UK Research and Innovation

2.00 pm – 3.30 pm CET

What are the most recent initiatives to better involve senior citizens in the development of health innovations?

Involving end-users in the innovation process allows for the development of products and services that are best adapted to them, meeting their specific needs, and thus having a better chance of viability in a dedicated market. How to involve older adults in this process and in what ways do they specifically contribute? What are the main hurdles to overcome in these collaborations? Should older adults be involved in a different way than other consumer groups? What structures or platforms currently exist to better facilitate the co-development of innovations through testing with seniors? Are these solutions successful?

Introduction: Vincent Augusto, Director of the Engineering and Health Center, École des Mines de Saint-Étienne & Co-Director, Medtech Lab

Moderator: Susie Ruff, Programme Director, CBS Executive Fonden & Trusted Advisor, RUFF & CO. Business Innovation

• Terje Peetso, Member of the Management Board, North Estonia Medical Centre
• Monica Moldovan, Founder, The Care Hub
• Florence Mathieu, Founder, Aïna-Lab
• Sandra Suijkerbuijk, Programme Manager Digital Innovation, Surplus

4.00 pm – 5.00 pm CET

How can nutrition be used as a strategic approach to promote ageing well?

Nutrition, from birth to older age, has an impact on health, whether it is positive or negative. Promoting healthy eating habits and physical activity as well as identifying opportunities to reduce risk factors at key stages of life is critical to prevention and healthy ageing. What are the determining factors? What are the recommendations and needs to be covered? How can a healthy diet lead to a healthy lifestyle? Who are the most appropriate prescribers to promote healthy eating and advise on nutrition and physical activity? How can opportunities for action be identified and health promotion organised? What might be the role of the food industry?

Moderator: Yaël Benvenisti, CEO, Mediterranean Towers Ventures

• Alexandra de Toledo, Project Manager, Pharmacie Principale S.A.
• Pol Grootswagers, Postdoctoral Researcher, Wageningen University & Research
• Elisabeth de Preter, Senior Sales Manager, Kappa Bioscience AS

2.00 pm – 3.30 pm CET

Frailty in older adults: Good practices in diagnosis, assessment, management, and medication

Frailty is generally defined as a syndrome that combines the effects of natural ageing with the consequences of multiple long-term conditions and is characterised by a decline in body functions and systems. Identification and assessment of frailty is therefore essential to provide adapted geriatric interventions but remains difficult. How to screen and detect frailty? How to assess the level of frailty? Are there clear biological and clinical markers? What are the current tools or medical devices to detect and support frail older adults? What are the latest research findings in this area? What are the keys to tailoring geriatric interventions and avoiding multimorbidity?

Moderator: Ivan Bautmans, Head Gerontology & Frailty in Ageing research departments, Vrije Universiteit Brussel

• Rémi Lecouffe, Medical Director, Santélys
• Didier Tsala Effa,  Full Professor in Semiotics and Anthropology, VieSanté Lab – Omega Health Institute Limoges
  
• Veerle Knoop, Head of the department geriatric physiotherapy, SOMT University of Physiotherapy & Postdoctoral Researcher, Vrije Universiteit Brussel  
• Jérôme Beck, Sales & Marketing Director, DomoHealth

11.45 am – 12.45 pm CET

Alzheimer’s disease: Towards new diagnostic and therapeutic leads

The continuous increase in life expectancy has led to a fast-growing number of patients with Alzheimer’s disease. As a result, research in the field has intensified, focusing on drug discovery and devices for the prevention and cure of the disease. Where are we in terms of genetic research and understanding of neurodegenerative diseases? What progress has been made in early diagnosis? What are the goals of future treatments? What are the current infrastructures, funding sources and incentives to accelerate research in the field?

TRACK 4: Innovations in residential care settings

How are residential care settings responding to the demand of a growing ageing population? What type of innovation is happening in long-term care?  How are institutions adapting in the way they provide care and in their interactions with stakeholders?  This track intends to review the most recent initiatives, the new collaborations, and the pioneering organisational models at a European scale.

4.00 pm – 5.00 pm CET

Virtual reality in residential care: Which benefits for the physical and mental health of long-term care residents?

Virtual reality, delivered through immersive headsets, has the potential to provide interventions to improve physical, mental, and psychosocial health. How are virtual reality (VR) devices suitable for the care of older adults? How are they perceived by residents and staff? How are caregivers using VR in residential care settings? What are the effects of VR on seniors’ mental health? What are the current incentives and barriers to further deploy this technology?

Moderator: Agnieszka Szmitkowska, Content Manager, Healthy Longevity Guide

• Karsten Kure Bagger, Founder, Senopi
• Miroslav Sili, Scientist, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology
• Guillaume Lucas, Co-Founder, VirtySens 

9.00 am – 10.00 am CET

Towards seamless care services: How are care homes adapting their value proposition by entering the home care market?

The priority today in Europe regarding public policy is to promote care at home, as people are happier to age in their own home and it remains less expensive in terms of care. In addition, the image of care facilities has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, care homes are still essential for people who need extra medical support. What should the future of care homes be? How are they answering this care transformation? What are the main challenges in providing new services at home? What are residential care providers’ main assets? How is technology speeding up their diversification towards the home? Can they legitimately position themselves as key players in the coordination of the older person’s care pathway between the city, the home, and the medico-social establishment?

Moderator: Stefan Kroll, International Affairs / Business Development, Management Board, terzStiftung

• Morgan Poulizac, Founder, Consultancy OBJEU & Head of Project Anhac Group
• Jackie Marshall-Cyrus, Innovation Strategy Consultant
• Tim van de Geijn, Programme Manager Innovation & Design, Sevagram

10.30 am – 11.30 am CET

How can technology enable carers to free up time to the benefit of residents?

Care home workers are often consumed with daily tasks in caring for senior residents and are under increased pressure. This is due to diminishing influx of new care workers and outflux of current care workers in a time with more aged people that need care. Not only can the physical and mental well-being of staff be affected, but ultimately the quality of care provided to residents can be severely diminished. Since it is often necessary to do more with less, innovative technologies and intelligent systems can prove beneficial and improve the efficiency of processes within care facilities. What are the uses of these technologies to support a decrease in the workload of care staff? How can they participate in increasing the autonomy of residents? To what extent can they increase the time available to carers for more informal care?

Moderator: Ad van Berlo, Manager R&D, Smart Homes

• Philippe Metzenthin, Director, G-ACTIV
• Eric Kihlstrom, UK Ambassador, Aging2.0
  
• Dimitri Delacroix, Co-Director of the Research Department, MJ Innov & Researcher in human and social sciences

TRACK 5: Technologies and services for ageing well at home

As most of the ageing population aspires to age in place, this track focuses on the challenges to access care and preserve independence at home. What are the innovation opportunities in building a care system that both meets older adults’ expectations and keeps them safe? To what extent are we reassessing the whole living space and designing age-friendly solutions?

9.00 am – 10.30 am CET

How to adapt existing digital technologies to older adults’ needs at home?

How are technologies designed today and to what extent should they be adapted to support ageing well? Are voice assistants, tablets and smartphones used by older people at home and for what purposes? How are large players such as technology giants focusing on the home care market? What are the prospects for developing health technologies that evolve over the life course?

Moderator: James Somauroo, Co-Founder & CEO, SomX 

• Diana Heinrichs, Co-Founder & CEO, Lindera
• Andria Hadjicosta, EU Project Management Officer, Agecare Ltd
• Yaël Benvenisti, CEO, Mediterranean Towers Ventures
• Maarten Lens-FitzGerald, Founder & Director, Project Zilver

9.00 am – 10.00 am CET

Towards seamless care services: How are care homes adapting their value proposition by entering the home care market?

The priority today in Europe regarding public policy is to promote care at home, as people are happier to age in their own home and it remains less expensive in terms of care. In addition, the image of care facilities has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, care homes are still essential for people who need extra medical support. What should the future of care homes be? How are they answering this care transformation? What are the main challenges in providing new services at home? What are residential care providers’ main assets? How is technology speeding up their diversification towards the home? Can they legitimately position themselves as key players in the coordination of the older person’s care pathway between the city, the home, and the medico-social establishment?

Moderator: Stefan Kroll, International Affairs / Business Development, Management Board, terzStiftung

• Morgan Poulizac, Founder, Consultancy OBJEU & Head of Project Anhac Group
• Jackie Marshall-Cyrus, Innovation Strategy Consultant
• Tim van de Geijn, Programme Manager Innovation & Design, Sevagram

4.00 pm – 5.00 pm CET

What are the keys to creating innovative and integrated care services for ageing in place?

How can different organisations such as hospitals, local care providers and associations work together to deliver the best services and support for older adults in their home? This session will look at innovative examples of cooperation between health services and providers to plan and coordinate support for older people at home.

Moderator: Carina Dantas, CEO, SHINE 2Europe

• Simon Hooper, CEO, ReMeLife
• Jane McDermott, Healthy Ageing Research Group, University of Manchester 
• Ton Klumpers, Director European Partnerships, YOURmeds 
• Nicc Johnson, Founder & Chief Musicologist, Music Health