PLATFORMS

Activage

Fiware

eVida

universAAL IoT

MiBiDa

TAREME

Information Catalyst for Enterprise

SoCaTel

HAAL

ACTIVAGE

In this video from the series “AHA experts’ Voices”, Mr Sergio Guillen who is the Chief Innovation Officer of MYSPHERA talks on the ACTIVAGE project. It is an Innovation Action (IA) funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme that has delivered the ACTIVAGE IoT Ecosystem Suite (AIOTES). The latter provides interoperability of IoT Platforms in Active and Healthy Ageing domain by addressing trustworthiness, privacy, data protection and security.

During the interview Mr. Guillen highlights the benefits of AIOTES for its stakeholders and provides some use cases of its practical implementation across Europe. He elaborates shortly on the challenges for the uptake of the platform and explains how PlatformUptake.eu project can help AIOTES tackle these issues in the long term.

FIWARE

In this video from the series “AHA experts’ Voices”, Mr. Ulrich Ahle, who is the Chief Executive Officer of FIWARE Foundation, presents FIWARE as an open-source technology based among others on open-source building blocks, APIs for interfaces and references for architectures in different domains. FIWARE technology is used in several main areas such as: smart cities, Industry 4.0, smart energy, smart agri-food and smart health.

According to Mr Ahle the end users of the technology benefit through its free and timely unlimited availability, standard API and standard data modules which consequently limit the vendor lock-in. Currently there are approximately 10.000 members of the community around the globe who develop, maintain and enhance FIWARE technology and make it possible for the end users to use it with the lowest possible operational costs.

eVida

In this video from the series “AHA Experts’ Voices”, Mr João Quintas, PhD who is a Principal Researcher at the Instituto Pedro Nunes, Portugal shares some insights on the creation and implementation of eVida platform as a main facilitator of digital solutions for active and healthy ageing. During the interview Mr Quintas talks on the benefits of eVida for its stakeholders and highlights its lack of complexity which usually results from the connection and data exchange with other services.

The later in particular makes the development and deployment of applications through eVide much faster. Finally he elaborates shortly on the challenges for the uptake of the platform and explains how PlatformUptake.eu project can help eVida tackle these issues in the long term.

universAAL IoT

Mr. Mohammad-Reza (Saied) Tazari is the General director of universAAL IoT Coalition which was launched as a public facing, open and non-profit international association to bridge the open-source community of universAAL IoT to the market. In this interview Mr. Tazari talks on the benefits of universAAL IoT for its main stakeholders and provides some examples of solutions which are built upon the platform and applied across Europe.

During the interview he highlights some of main barriers on the path towards the large-scale uptake of universAAL IoT including, among others the severe competition in the AAL and IoT markets, the complexity of digitization preventing the customers from making informed decisions about the right products, the labeling of universAAL as an academic research as well as the lack of financial support to ensure the sustainable exploitation of the project outcomes and conclusions. Mr. Tazari concludes by pointing out that initiatives like PlatformUptake.eu project are especially needed to raise awareness on open platforms in the AHA domain and bring them successfully to the market.

MiBiDa

Mr Bas Goossen who is the CEO and founder of MiBida B.V., talks about MiBida platorm and its benefits for the company’s stakeholders. In this interview he explains that the platform is widely implemented in hospitals and care centers to enable the communication between the patients and their carers. Mibida features secured communication, storage exchange and presentation of data. It provides a full range of open APIs and has developed possibilities for third parties to create their own packages and features. The platform is modular, where functional packages can be created.

Prior to the end of the interview Mr Goossen states that the market is saturated with various technological solutions which collect an enormous amount of data. These unfortunately remain unused or trapped in data silos. Therefore, the uptake and wide scale application of open platforms is urgently needed to boost the research and development work in the AHA and AAL domains and tackle the barriers imposed by big companies representing patent giants that hinder the spread of knowledge.

TAREME

In an interview with Dr. Fabio Paternò who is responsible for HIIS Laboratory at the Institute of science and information technologies, Italy some details on the implementation and benefits of the TAREME (Trigger-Action Rule Editing, Monitoring, Executing) platform for its end users were discussed.

According to Mr. Paternò the TAREME platform allows the creation (even by people without programming experience) and execution of trigger-action personalization rules that can change the state of connected smart objects and devices, send alarms or reminders, and modify applications’ state depending on contextual events. It also supports analytics about the actual use of the rules and provides associated information, which can be useful to better understand users’ personalization needs.

As one of the main challenges on the path towards the platform’s uptake, Mr. Paternò highlights the process of forming potential target users for the platform. This is an important aspect concerning the progress of the platform in the near future. Moreover, the interviewee concludes, it is crucial to find the trade off between end user automation creation and automation created through AI.

OpenRemote

In an interview with Mr Pierre Kill, the CEO and founder of Openremote, some details on the development and implementation of the platform were discussed. Openremote is a fully open source IoT platform and it is mainly used for the creation of government related solutions. The benefits of the platform for its users result from the fact that there are no features of the code which are hidden behind the subscription model. This, according to Mr Kill, makes the platform attractive also for medium to large sized companies. Due to its intuitive interface and available support for end users, Openremote can be used also by non-programmers.

According to Mr Kill, Openremote has been developed and applied on large projects which makes it robust, stable and secure. The APIs are open, as well as the source code, i.e. people can download and install it. For technical end users all the necessary documentation is available, and there are also video tutorials where it is explained how to set up their own environment. Mr Kill concludes the interview by pointing out that for scaling up is extremely important for open platform in the field as well as their visibility on the market.

Oscar Senior

As a representative of Oscar Senior, Mr Tomas Posker was interviewed to share his experiences with developing and promoting a platform to facilitate communication for seniors. Oscar Senior is an open platform that helps care providers and family caregivers to stay in touch with older adults and provide them with remote support and care. Oscar Senior provides both a platform, Oscar Senior Enterprise and an application, Oscar Senior Family app, and these solutions are used by seniors and their caregivers all over the world.

In relation to challenges to uptake of the platform, Mr Posker forwards issues related to the connection of external sources. There are many devices on the market that could be useful for Oscar Senior’s customers but that are hard for this user group to access as they are not designed for the needs of older people. Mr Posker describes an openness in society towards technology that can support aging at home as a critical issue for the future. However, he concluded, it is important not to let technical solution replace physical meeting and physical contact between older people and especially their families.

Pharos Navigator

In an interview with Mr. Serguei Golovanov, the CEO and founder of Pharos Navigator sheds light on the development and benefits of the platform. Pharos Navigator is based on the concept of personal Digital Health Assistant which integrates latest mainstream open source AI, BigData, IoT, and cloud kubernetes software, and wearables and home sensor hardware linked to wireless technologies such as Bluetooth 5 BLE, Zigbee 3, Wi-Fi 6, Lora, 4G/5G . It collects continuously and analyses automatically a large number of biometric and other data about psychological state of its host person to inform the caregivers about her/his actual or predictable critical health and safety situations.

As one of the main challenges on the path towards the platform’s uptake, Mr. Golovanov highlights the requirement of significant changes in historical social organization, cognitive perception and behavioral patterns of people. Legacy regulations for privacy and their interpretations and implementation in the new digital society as well as the costs of necessary IoT devices for the collection of various data can limit, according to the interviewee, the access to the solution by the population.

InCasa MONITOR

As a CEO and founder of Incasanet Technologies S.L.U., Mr Alejandro Cavaliere was interviewed to share his experiences with developing and promoting a platform to facilitate the creation of “smart homes” for older people.

InCasa MONITOR is the first platform capable of creating a Smart Home environment for the older people at their own houses. It can also be used to provide quality of life and safety to people with disabilities. InCasa consists of a Home Kit with open-protocol sensors and a Home Gateway (a small autonomous computer) and Artificial Intelligence software, created by InCasa, that resides in the Gateway. InCasa is a turn-key solution and its installation is very simple and wireless. Once installed, InCasa executes a Home Care protocol, also proprietary but open for user and partner customization.

Prior to the end of the interview, Mr Cavaliere elaborates shortly on the benefits of PlatformUptake.eu for platforms like InCasa MONITOR, including the project’s broad network of potential collaboration partners and end users, valuable support for the uptake of the platform’s services and strengthening its credibility.

Information Catalyst for Enterprise

As a Senior Computer Specialist at Information Catalyst for Enterprise, Dr. Cesar Marin was invited to an interview to share some insights on the platform developed and managed by the company.

According to Mr. Marin the platform represents a tool for automation of processes and actions in organisations. The platform’s services are manly applied in the area of manufacturing. However, the company is already involved in the orchestration of the services that are to be developed within the Pharaon project. The later seeks to leverage devices, systems, and equipment of tool providers in the Active and Health Ageing domain.

During the interview, Mr. Marin stated that one of the barriers towards the wider uptake of the platform is its perception by the end users as a software, not as a tool for automation. Therefore, it is very difficult to sell it. This can be observed also with many other platforms no matter of the vertical they are applied in. However, if the managing organisations promote their platforms through the prism of concrete use cases, it will be easier for the end users to understand their benefits. He concluded the interview by pointing out that platform providers need to tailor the services of their platforms to the specific domain of application by proactively engaging with the end users to grasp their requirements.

SoCaTel project

Dr. Blanca Ayala, who is an associate professor at Rovira I Virgilli University in Spain, was interviewed on SoCaTel project and asked in this interview to share some insights on the development and implementation of the connected SoCaTel platform. According to the interviewee, SoCaTel is a digital co-creation platform which enables the development and implementation of long-term care services. It achieves this by facilitating the participation of all related stakeholders to identify needs of older people and find concrete solutions. The process starts from the co-ideation of the platform, goes through the co-creation of the services and their co-validation, thus seeking to address all possible needs in various contexts.

Dr. Ayala states towards the end of the interview that because of the different levels of digital literacy of the ageing population, the extent to which the platform’s services are applied across Europe can vary. Nevertheless, the interviewee claimed that there is positive tendency according to which older persons are becoming more confident in handling with digital tools, especially in the context of the current pandemic.

EncourAGE

In this video from the series “AHA experts’ Voices”, Mr Nanno van der Laan, who is the CEO of 112 Motion B.V. talks on the EncourAGE platform and its benefits for its end users. According to the interviewee the platform can be used with ready-to-use mobile apps, voice apps, connected wearables and other third-party devices. Hence, EncourAGE integrates social activities of businesses, local governments, care providers and user communities to facilitate the emergence of a social driven society.

During the interview, Mr van der Laan, elaborates on the challenges towards the uptake of the platform and explains that PlatformUptake.eu can help his company establish a longer-term engagement with other stakeholders in the field and promote EnourAGE’s services and across Europe and beyond.

Hassisto Srl

As a Co-founder of Hassisto Srl, Ing. Pier Guiseppe Meo was invited to an interview to share some insights on the platform developed and managed by his company. Mr Guiseppe Meo explains that the Hassisto platform helps and reduces cost of indoor healthcare management by automatizing routinary operations and reducing the incidence of false alarms. The developed platform controls the state of well-being of the subject who is monitored in a non-invasive way. It achieves this by connecting Internet Of Things (IOT) devices and making collected data available online

During the interview, he states that one of the barriers towards the wide uptake of the platform is the change of the mindset and already established care pathways in the healthcare domain. Additionally, there is an existing perception of the hospital as a place of centralized care provision, administration, quality monitoring and insurance. In such context, the paradigm shift to a situation in which the hospital, including its health services and personnel, need to go to the patient requires a lot of efforts to achieve technology acceptance and wide applicability of the platform’ services.

GRIPWISE

Mr. Ricardo Moura is the CEO of the company GRIPWISE which has developed a platform as an integrated solution to assess and manage the evolution of frailty in a simple and portable way. The platform helps older people and healthcare professionals to early identify behavior changes and support the prescription of appropriate therapies. The solution can be integrated with different technologies allowing for the screening of different physical conditions.

The platform and its connected technology facilitate the definition of personalized actions, physical activities and nutrition which can greatly reduce the costs for the healthcare systems and improve the quality of life of older people.

During the interview Mr. Moura highlights some of main barriers on the path towards the large-scale uptake of GRIPWISE platform, among others the lack of education and awareness on the frailty syndrome and its implications and challenges for the healthcare system. According to the interviewee there is still need for GRIPWISE to present its technology to the key players in the field in order to ensure its acceptance and wider applicability.

MYSPHERA

Mr. Álvaro Martínez is a project manager at MYSPHERA and also responsible in vCare project for the architecture of the interoperability and connectivity elements of vCare platform and their integration.

During the interview, he highlighted the benefits of the platform referring to real time communication between its components, different types of technology such as servers and mobile devices through semantics with interoperable data with third party systems, including FIWARE and Universaal. This allows the development team to create treatments for patients that can be personalized according to their needs and requirements.

Prior to the end of the interview, Mr Martinez stated that some of the challenges for the development team of vCare platform are the finalization of the trials and the validation of the pathways of treatments, as well as the consolidation of the platform’s core components. The interviewee continued by stating that PlatformUptake.eu project can support the uptake of the vCare platform by creating networking opportunities for its further development and use beyond the project’s end.

HAAL

In this interview, Ms Sara Casaccia, who is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Industrial Engineering and Mathematical Sciences (DIISM) of Marche Polytechnic University, Italy and Mr Henk Herman Nap, who is the Digital Care Coordinator at Vilans, The Netherlands share some insights on the development and benefits of HAAL platform for its end users.

According to both interviewees, the goal of the HAAL platform is to integrate a specific set of products and services developed in past projects, into a system able to target and evolve with people with dementia (PwD), by incorporating different solutions in the different phases and used by different end users such as municipalities or care organisations.

Prior to the end of the interview, Mr. Nap highlighted some of the challenges that are faced by the development teams of open platforms in the field, including the implementation of the platform’s services in practice and their commercialization. He continued, by pointing out that care professionals need a proper training and education in order to apply the services of such platforms and benefit through their technology. Moreover, other systems, which are integrated in the value chain should have more focus on care. This, according to him, can be achieved through more social innovation and support through the public sector.

RESEARCH, INNOVATION AND PROMOTION

Prof. Lacramioara Stoicu-Tivadar

Ms Sonja Hansen

Maxima Medical Centre

SIZA

Morphogram PRO

As a CEO and founder of Morphogram PRO, Dott. Andrea De Cristofaro was interviewed to share his experiences with developing and promoting a digital solution in the clinical nutrition space.

Morphogram PRO represents a methodology which is a software as a service for nutrition professionals. The solution allows to make nutrition status assessment connected to life style, body composition and risk factors resulting from weight related diseases. The solution is applied to “visit” patients remotely which is really important for crisis situations in which hospital visits are not possible.

The benefits of Morphogram PRO derive from its simplicity of implementation and low costs of utilization. It helps care professionals to personalize the nutrition plan to each older person’s needs and health status. It focuses on prevention based on the collected information on cardiovascular diseases.

Prior to the end of the interview, Mr De Cristofaro elaborates shortly on the hindrance factors on the path towards the uptake of his solution. These, according to the interviewee, include bureaucracy in the field of telemedicine, hardly developed market for telemedicine solutions and lack of funding.

AAL Programme

Mr Klaus Niederländer is the Director of Central Management Unit of AAL Programme which funds applied research for developing ICT-based innovation for active and healthy ageing. In this interview Mr Niederländer talks on the role of technology in providing older people with better quality of life and improving the parameters in their daily living. In the interview he presents information on how innovation is actually applied in practice in the field of “fall-prevention” and how new technologies can bring financial benefits to their users.

Further, the interviewee highlights the importance of functional connectivity between open platforms and other devices and services in the field creating one big ecosystem for the benefit of older people. Mr Niderländer concludes with the remark that demographic change brings many challenges to our societies but also vast opportunities which are stored in today’s world of connected technology.

50plus Hellas

In this interview Dr. Elizabeth Mesthenaiou who is a member of the Board of directors of 50plus Hellas talks on the prejudices and negative stereotypes towards older people and their active social integration through the means of digital technology.

To highlight the role of technology in the process Dr. Mesthenaiou provides some practical examples of how digital tools support older people and their family carers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Further on, the interviewee highlights the importance of developing technology which is close to the needs and requirements of the end users and socially inclusive towards older people in terms of the knowledge, processes and outcomes involved.

Wit-Gele Kruis

Mr. Bart Degryse who works as a Project Manager at the White Yellow Gross in Belgium talks on the benefits of technology for the effective support of older people and their carriers. Mr. Degryse provides two examples where innovation can improve the quality of life of the end users. The first one includes a monitoring system which can be installed in the homes of older people whereas the second one refers to a life-line alarm based on mobile devices usable outside of the people’s residences.

The interviewee highlighted the need of the correct definition of an ‘open platform’. The latter represents a difficult concept for many care organization due its rather technical character and unknown benefits. Therefore more clarification on the topic is urgently needed.

Prof. Lacramioara Stoicu-Tivadar

In this video Ms. Lacramioara Stoicu-Tivadar who is a professor at the University Politehnica Timisoara, Romania and also a representative of Europe in the International Medical Informatics Association (IMA) shares her point of view regarding the implementation and role of IoT based technology to meet needs and requirements of the various stakeholders in the Active and Healthy Ageing (AHA) domain.

The interviewee highlights the importance of the European professional societies for the promotion of open platforms in the field and the provision of information to their members on the platforms’ success and evolution potential. Ms Stoicu-Tivadar concludes the interview by pointing out that interoperability is crucial for the consistent sharing and use of collected data for the benefit of all participating parties.

Ms Sonja Hansen

In this interview, Ms Sonja Hansen who is a European Project Officer at the Municipality of Aarhus, Denmark, talks about the role of open platforms and the solutions built upon them for the improvement of the quality of life of older people. Ms Hansen provides an example with the Center for Assisted Living Technology which currently works on the development of a platform which aims to provide companies, academia, politicians and citizens with information and advice on available digital solutions in the field.

The interviewee elaborates on the importance of collaborating with SMEs and other industry representatives for the introduction of innovation solutions to older people so they can have a good life on their own conditions. Ms Hansen concludes by stating that the involvement of all relevant stakeholders in the knowledge exchange is an important prerequisite for the creation of technology that addresses adequately the needs and requirements of older people.

Maxima Medical Centre

As a manager of the vitality centre for lifestyle medicine and remote patient management at the Maxima Medical Centre in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, Ms Laurence Oostveen was interviewed to share her experience with MiBida platform.

According to the interviewee, MiBida was chosen because if its high level of flexibility, and openness of its host company to co-create and co-design the platform’s services. For example for rehabilitation Maxima Medical Center needed a dashboard that could integrate wearable and data from different vendors. Mibida was one of the rare companies that was willing to do so.

Moreover, unlike its competition, Mibida company was able to integrate an e-coaching module with the already existing video conferencing on its platform and now the center has exactly what its staff wants to offer to the patients.

SIZA

In an interview with Mr Jos Geesken, Programme Manager at SIZA healthcare organisation for physically and mentally disabled persons in Arnhem, The Netherlands, some details on his experience with the implementation of IQMessenger platform are shared.

According to Mr Geesken, Siza uses the platform in its newest locations to connect several smart building systems with other systems, like safety alarm systems and an identification system for access control in the apartments. A special service, which is also connected to the platform, is a new app for people with no arm function who can still call for an alarm or control building functions.

The interview concluded by stating that with IQMessenger platform SIZA uses less devices with more functionality. This also allows the organisation to guarantee more security and safety to its residents and home care clients.

PROJECT EVENTS

International English language workshop for end-users

German Workshop

International workshop on Open Service Platforms

SetUp2match Webinar

MOOC Webinar

Data Sharing and Data Regulation

Monitoring and Self-evaluation tools

PlatformUptake.eu & AAL Austria MATCHMAKING | # 2

From pilot to scale in the area of digital technology for Active and Healthy Ageing (AHA)

AAL Workshop

Following the AAL Hackathon, the EWAHA (European Week of Active and Healthy Ageing) took place online, from October 18th till October 21st. PlatformUptake.eu presented a workshop on the topic of “Large-scale uptake of open platforms in the AAL/AHA domain” in which the concept of open platforms was presented. Platform developer Ubiwhere from Portugal showed an example of use in the AHA domain from the TeNDER project. They also showed examples of use in smart city applications, which is an area in which open platforms are already very broadly used, and from which lessons can be learned.

Meet2match

In this webinar, SYNYO GmbH introduced the PlatformUptake.eu project to the audience, provided concise overview of the current achievements and informed about the planned matchmaking events including their goal and benefits for the participanting organisations. Additionally, the host of the event announced the expected award for the best pitches. The agenda included also points pertaining to the matchmaking events’ page on the Open Information Hub, its features and submission form for the pitch decks. The continued with short presentation on other upcoming events and opportunities for networking with relevant stakeholders in the field and culminated with a Q&A session.

Portuguese Workshop

This workshop was hosted by Cáritas Diocesana de Coimbra, Portugal and held in Portuguese and English languages. Focus during the presentations was put on the topic of open platforms and their main healthcare and social benefits as well as their role as facilitators of new devices and software for active and healthy ageing.

As an example for open platform from Portugal was presented eVida which was developed within a big national project to enable the delivery of services for personal health and wellbeing. The representative from Instituto Pedro Nunes, Portugal concluded his presentation by highlighting the main aim of the platform to provide an infrastructure for the development of digital social innovation vectors and address the needs of the ageing population.

Another contribution to the topic of open platforms in the Active and Healthy Ageing (AHA) domain was made by the coordinator of Smart Healthy Age-Friendly Environments (SHAFE) network and CEO of SHINE2Europe, Portugal. The presenter stated that open platforms can be essential tools for the prevention of non-communicable diseases and the promotion of independent living. Prior to the end of the event a discussion was conducted on the main challenges on the path towards the uptake of open platforms. The participants in the workshop stated that actual policies need to be changed to leverage the use and adoption of open platforms. Additionally it was elaborated on the role of R&D centres to sustain open platforms and enable technology transfer. Finally, the participants in the event discussed on current policies that aim to grant access to existing platforms.

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Dutch Workshop

In this workshop which was hosted by Afedemy, Academy on Age-Friendly Environments in Europe BV and Smart Homes, Netherlands the topic regarding the uptake of open platforms in the AHA domain was addressed by representatives of the main stakeholder groups of the project.

During the event, the account manager of Verkerk Service Systems, Netherlands presented the technical specifications of the Verkerk open platform and rexplained that platforms value preposition evolves around 13 rules, among others, an ultimately user-friendly and every eHealth application on one device, virtual (night) inspections, better cooperation between shifts and reporting.

Another contribution to the topic was made by the strategic advisor at Saffier in The Hague, Netherlands who highlighted the role of open platforms as enablers of improved safety and security for patients and (informal) caregivers. According to the presenter, open platforms could potentially facilitate the creation of health-care record that includes every relevant information about the client and can be used on every device. Finally the speaker concluded by stating that simplicity and user-friendliness is key for the successful uptake of open platform in the AHA domain.

The presentations’ part of the event was completed by a contribution from Project Manager of the White Yellow Gross in Belgium. He stated that there are only a few providers of Emergency Care Services in the country. This and the GDPR are often perceived as barriers towards the wider deployment of open platforms and digital solutions in the field.

Based on the discussion carried out at the end of the workshop a common understanding was established that, among others social aspects regarding the development of open platforms must not be forgotten. Moreover, sufficient time for learning new technologies and languages is required.

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International English language workshop for end-users

On 10.03.2021 another workshop was held with representatives of end-users organisations, open platform providers and other players form the health and social care sectors. During the event the Commercial Director of Mextal, Netherlands presented some key facts on the customer base of the Mextal platform including some technical specifications regarding its development and available functionalities. During his presentation he highlighted the importance of algorithms for the prediction of amount and type of care that will be needed by the older people. Hence, a more efficient care process and better allocation of resources can be provided.

The Project Manager at Cáritas Diocesana de Coimbra, Portugal continued the program by presenting some information on eVida platform which was developed with a big national project. The presenter pointed out during her presentation that due the availability of large amount of health related data, open platforms can facilitate the interoperability between multiple applications and devices for the benefit of the older people and their caregivers. According to her, a particular challenge on the path towards the uptake of open platforms in the AHA domain is the lack of funding once the EU projects are completed.

The discussion which was held at the end of the event focused on the openness of the platforms and their reliability. According to the workshop’s participants, it is a misunderstanding that an open platform is less protective. Further on, to keep the platform open the business case must fit to its purpose. To achieve this goal the platform providers should co-create their solutions together with the user groups. Against this background, the PlatformUptake.eu project will play an important role for the platform providers to better address the needs and requirements of their end users.

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German Workshop

The workshop was opened by the chair Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research IGD, Germany. The CEO of Assisted Home Solutions, Germany continued the session with an introduction of the concept of open platforms to the audience of the workshop. He outlined some important aspects of the platforms’ technical development and real-life application for the benefits of their end users. Finally, the presenter stated that an open platform allows for an abstraction level which is open towards hardware components and software (services and apps). Thus, new hardware and software can be added or replaced.

Practical experience with open platforms was shared by a representative of the department “Smart Living & Biometric Technologies” at the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research IGD, Germany. He presented the solution uLive which was built upon universAAL IoT. It constitutes a command centre for smart living which allows for older people to make an emergency call. Gathered data is stored and processed locally. Further on, the application runs on specific hardware which is connected to a phone with a hands-free device. Basic service provided by the app is the detection of situation and reduction of risks in case of emergencies.

The participants in the virtual workshop explained, it is common that once components are built into the homes of the older people, they are already outdated. In this context an open platform is the best to use from an economic perspective. That is because it supports many features and can be extended to incorporate new services and solutions. However, the current challenge is to combine these technologies with assistive systems for assisted living and “living with service” and find the right services by taking the needs of end-users into account. Prior to the end of the discussion a common understanding was established that primary and secondary end-users need a functioning and useful system which is extendable and capable to work in the next 5 to 10 years.

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International workshop on Open Service Platforms

The main goals of this workshop, hosted by the Institute of Communication and Computer Systems, Greece, were to learn more about the open platforms in the AHA and AAL domains and exchange experience with their providers.

The CEO of the FIWARE Foundation opened the session by explaining that FIWARE is an open-source platform for smart digital future. Twin data is used as a turning key between the real world and the processing, analysis and monitoring of the data.

Next, the Accountmanager of Verkerk Service System presented the Verkerk platform as an open, hybrid platform, which connects the company’s own products and services with those of third parties to provide maximum support for caregivers. The platform can be used on premise and in the cloud, it is an end to-end solution.

universAAL IoT was also among the presented platforms. It constitutes an open-source platform and free enabler for the digital era. It develops arbitrary multi-component solutions. The platform enables the integration and deployment of complex systems across domains.

The Commercial Director at Mextal B.V, Netherlands presented Viedome which is a complete platform for end-to-end services and functionalities. The connectors are based on open standards such as MQTT, OAP, SCAIP, REST, ESPA, on propriety protocols such as Tunstall, RB2000, and on database protocols, such as SQL, MONGO.

Platform 4WeCooperate was presented as a solution that extends to capabilities and domains such as Internet of Things, genetics, evidence-based research from general practitioners and hospitals and acts as cooperative research collaboration framework from interdisciplinarity towards transdisciplinary value creation.

The OscarSenior platform was showcased by the CEO and Co-founder of the hosting company, Oscar Senior s.r.o., Czech Republic. The platform offers several functionalities for AHA and independent living. It is open, contains SaaS, White label, MDM integration and is remotely managed.

As next, Open Remote platform was demonstrated. It is 100% open source and is characterized by generic asset and attribute model, protocol agents such as HTTP REST, MQTT, KNX, Flow editor, WHEN-THEN, Groovy based rules, Standard responsive dashboard, Web UI components for front-end developers, Android and iOS consoles.

As last, the AIOTES platform was presented. AIOTES was developed within the Activage project and provides the interoperability between IoT platforms, data model for AHA-IoT, security and privacy, visual and data analytics, development support, deployment management, monitoring and a marketplace. Platforms such as FIWARE, IoTivity, universAAL and SensiNact are part of AIOTES.

Prior to the end of the event the participants discussed whether the creation of new open platforms against the background of the already existing ones makes sense or it is rather better to focus on the already collected data and create smart solutions.

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SetUp2match Webinar Part 1 & 2

PlatformUptake.eu organized a webinar to set the stage for the upcoming matchmaking activities. For this the project invited representatives of each stakeholder group and offer them the opportunity to present gaps and innovation needs in the field and comment on technology developments and the potential of open platforms for the establishment of open market for digital solutions for active and healthy ageing. The event included a short presentation on related EU projects which have contributed to the state of the art or are currently seeking to upscale the services of open platforms in AHA and AAL domains. The webinar culminated with a panel discussion with experts in the field.

MOOC webinar

This webinar from the series of virtual project events was dedicated to the MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) which was designed and developed by the project consortium. The host of the event, Ms Willeke van Staalduinen (CEO of AFEdemy) presented the draft version of the online course and invited the audience to provide questions and comments on the course and get engaged in discussion about it.

The MOOC aims to raise awareness in the adoption of open platforms in the AHA domain and focuses on the identification and selection of open platforms and is especially designed for professionals in healthcare and care organisations, public authorities, health insurance organisations and other interested in the field. The MOOC will enable learners to build understanding of the use of open platforms and their benefits as well as to identify and integrate them in work processes and organisations.

Data sharing and Data regulation

PlatformUptake.eu and IDIH projects organized a joint webinar to provide a stage to professionals to share their experiences and insights on data sharing and data regulation in the field of open platforms and digital technology for active and healthy ageing and discuss related challenges on the path towards their broader upscale across borders in Europe.

PlatformUptake.eu Monitoring and Self-evaluation tools

PlatformUptake.eu has developed monitoring and self-evaluation tools which support open platform providers and their users (technology developers and care organisations) in the AHA and AAL domains to self-assess the success and uptake of the platforms and their progress while developing solutions on top of them. The tools enable the collection and visualisation of platform characteristics, KPI values, statistics metrics, and feedback from the aforementioned users’ perspective such that platforms are made comparable across a variety of assessment topics, metrics and indicators. This will ensure that providers of open platforms know what they and their competitors are offering and how the users perceive it, which should help them make their technology and marketing stand out.

Users, such as SMEs or start-ups developing technology for active and healthy ageing are able to browse through the profiles of registered open platforms, compare them and get tailored platform recommendations based on their particular requirements and needs, provide their experience from using the platforms and track their own progress while developing solutions and products. Hence, they are able to choose wiser, reduce time to market, improve the quality of their solutions and reach a wider users’ community.

This webinar aimed to introduce the tools and their benefits to their potential users and inform how they can be used and where they are to be accessed. The participants in the virtual event were invited to provide questions and comments on the tools and get engaged in discussion about them.

PlatformUptake.eu & AAL Austria MATCHMAKING | # 2

Together with AAL Austria, PlatformUptake.eu organized another matchmaking event to provide players in the Active and Healthy Ageing (AHA) and Active and Assisted Living (AAL) domains from Austria, and also from across Europe and beyond, with the excellent opportunity to exploit the potential for future collaboration with their counterparts and benefit from the knowledge exchange.

During this virtual event, providers of open platforms in the AHA/AAL domains, developers of technology for active and healthy ageing (apps, sensors, wearables, etc.), care organisations and policy makers made a pitch on their offerings, present and discuss their needs.

From pilot to scale in the area of digital technology for Active and Healthy Ageing (AHA)

In this webinar PlatformUptake.eu project demonstrated the role of pilots for the integration of digital services and tools into open platforms for maintaining independent, safe and dignified living of older people. In this context, the case of an open platform developed by the PHArA-ON project was presented including the challenges faced by the development team and requirements for the platform’s uptake by its end users. The event continued with introduction by Arnora Oy to the Finnish healthtech markets and presentations by healthtech companies based in Finland from the domain on their experiences and lessons learnt on driving product-market fit through pilots.