OBJECTIVES

ESSENCE builds upon the lessons learnt from the pandemic and efficiently leverages the use of technology at the service of vulnerable populations at risk of isolation. ESSENCE wants to boost the process of creation of a new model of home-based care that relies on remote monitoring and tele-assistance, to contribute to the public health preparedness and response in the context of the ongoing epidemic of COVID-19 and of future health emergencies.

To this end, ESSENCE is aimed at:

  • realizing an engineered platform to connect, stimulate, assist, and monitor vulnerable target users
  • accelerating the route to market and entering the e-health field with an innovative system.

ESSENCE specific objectives include:

  • promoting coordination, connection, and support of relevant others around seniors and children.
  • promoting physical and mental wellbeing and counteract isolation.
  • detecting and reporting early risks of cognitive, physical and social alerts.
  • enriching the participant’s daily life with personalized suggestions and emotional feedback.

To demonstrate the potential of the proposed ESSENCE system, we aim at field-testing the system both on seniors and on children of the first and second grade of the primary school. Such age range is of interest because it is characterized by the evolution of the writing and reading capacities of the children before their full acquisition, and thus it is a phase in which screening can be performed to early identify potential risk of learning difficulties, with the final aim of tailoring training programs that can anticipate care or compensate and even solve some mild delays. This objective is key to gather evidence about system usability, user satisfaction, and the ability of ESSENCE to bring benefits in the daily-life of target users. End-user satisfaction is a crucial and necessary point to be proved before entering the market.