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The Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Clinic of the Rainha Santa Isabel Centre of Cáritas Coimbra hosted an exhibition of the projects carried out by the institutional Innovation Department.

For a week, between 8 and 12 April, the community had the opportunity to get in touch with European projects that are testing cutting-edge technologies and innovative concepts, with the aim of modernising the fields of inclusion and active and healthy ageing.

The exhibition was designed to be interactive, so that visitors could explore the projects’ prototypes, and pick up free materials. People could, for example, take away the activity books on digital health literacy, which were developed as part of the IDEAHL project; take away various flyers with tips on health, well-being and digital inclusion (from the ValueCare and IDEAHL projects); use the tablets provided, with the Sentab app from the Pharaon project installed for testing; and get to know the technological devices from the AGAPE project, which allow daily lifestyle monitoring.

The highlight of this event was the AAL4All project with the devices that were tested in the pilot phase with users of Cáritas de Coimbra in favour of smart homes. People were able to see how simple and unobtrusive the equipment is and how it can be an alternative for assisted living environments to improve the quality of life of older people and their carers.

In a week in which the daily visitor flow at the Clinic was around 500 people, the exhibition was a special attraction in the reception area. The public was very receptive to the initiative, from patients, family members, staff and the community in general. Cáritas Diocesana de Coimbra would like to thank the organisation (the Innovation Department and the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Clinic) for allowing this extension of the projects to the community.

The ValueCare, Pharaon and IDEAHL projects received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme – ValueCare Project ‘Value-Based Methodology for Integrated Care Supported by ICT’, under grant agreement no. 875215; Pharaon Project ‘Pilots for Healthy and Active Ageing’, under grant agreement no. 857188; and IDEAHL Project ‘Improving Digital Empowerment for Active Healthy Living’, under grant agreement no. 101057477. The AAL4All and AGAPE ‘Active aGeing And Personalised service’s Ecosystem’ projects are both co-funded by the European AAL (Active Assisted Living) Programme and, in the Portuguese case, by the Foundation for Science and Technology (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia).