EPICO

Twinning solution

Improving the quality of life of epileptic patients through improved patient-doctor-communication

Twinning type

Partial adoption

Main policy priority

Digital tools for citizen empowerment and for person-centred care

Originator

AICRUM IT SL (Spain)

Adopter(s)

Greek Carers Network EPIONI (Greece), SYNDESIS LTD (Greece)

Short description

Epilepsy is a prevalent disease within neurological pathologies and affects 0.7 – 1% of the general population. At least half of the patients with epilepsy are young and active. These patients need regular follow-ups with hospital Neurology services or Epilepsy Units. In Murcia (Spain) waiting list for successive appointments in the doctor’s office is an average of 6-9 months. The number of unexpected (emergency) visits is also high, 1.7 per day. EPICO stands for Epilepsy Communication Channel and aims at overcoming these challenges by better managing this disease and providing tools for the doctors to better understand their patients and their epilepsy disorder. The final goal is to reduce the number of epileptic crises and emergency consultations related to epilepsy. The twinning proposal focuses on the partial adoption of EPICO in one Hospital in Greece through the iwelli platform (clinic.iwelli.com) developed by Syndesis Ltd that offers integrated care services in hospitals, clinics, and nursing homes to assess the potential full adoption of the service in Greece.

News

Improving epilepsy treatment with DHE twinning EPICO

The Epilepsy Communication Channel (EPICO) twinning aims at enhancing the quality of life of epileptic patients and enables healthcare professionals to have a wider know-how about their patients and the epilepsy disorder. Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological…

Twinning activities

To achieve the partial adoption of EPICO in Greece, the project was split into the following steps: 1) Transfer of best practices from the originator to the adopters through a dedicated training course (Leader: originator). 2) Translation of the EPICO application from Spanish to Greek and analysis of competitors (Joint-work: originator and adopters). 3) Pilot definition to select the doctors and patients in Greece and detail how to deploy the EPICO tool, determining the data to be collected, etc (Joint-work: originator and adopters). 4) Pilot deployment to execute the pilot and get the results (Leader: adopters). 5) Analysis of the results and establish the main recommendations and the way forward (Joint-work: originator and adopters).

Outcomes

The objective of the project was to adapt the EPICO application to the Greek context. More specifically, the aim was to translate the contents of the mobile app into the local language (Greek), to introduce the app to local neurologists and to bring the application to the local medical market for the self-management of epilepsy by epileptic patients in conjunction with their doctors.

Added value and benefits

The expected added value or benefit from the twinning project was that it gave the twinning partners the opportunity to pilot test an epilepsy application on a Greek group of neurological patients (i.e., epileptics) with the help of their doctors who were neurologists. The pilot testing demonstrated the usefulness of the aforementioned application to the Greek cohort of neurological patients because it enabled them to monitor their condition in conjunction with their doctor. Therefore they were able to better manage their neurological condition and cope with it more effectively. According to the feedback of the doctors, the application proved a useful tool in managing the doctor-patient interaction and allowing doctors to better monitor their patient’s conditions. The interactive interface enabled two-way communication between doctor and patient which facilitated the doctors’ monitoring of the moods and daily schedule of their patients.

Barriers and success factors

The critical success factors/key enablers for the success of the project were the following: 1) The constructive and relatively smooth collaboration among the Spanish and Greek partners that enabled smooth communication and effective adaptation of the application into the Greek context. 2) The accomplishment of a relatively intuitive app interface which allowed easy communication between doctor and patient during the piloting phase of the project

Outlook

Future plans beyond the training time frame with regards to the use of the twinning solution and its potential further adoption are currently discussed between the coordinator in Spain (the originator) and the partners from Greece (the adopters). The technology of EPICO is promising and several doctors from Greece would like to adopt the application in order to have better communication and interaction with their epileptic patients.

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