EmERGE – Evaluating mHealth Technology in HIV to Improve Empowerment and Healthcare Utilisation: Research and Innovation to Generate Evidence for Personalised Care

Why?

The management of HIV and co-morbidities still requires regular clinical monitoring. Efforts are being made to reduce the impact of this in the everyday lives of People Living with HIV (PLHIV). eHealth tools have emerged as part of these efforts to support self-management and care by enabling remote access to health care providers.

What?

EmERGE has developed a mHealth platform to enable self-management of people living with stable HIV. The platform builds upon and integrates the existing mHealth solutions operated by pioneering healthcare providers in the UK and Spain and applies a rigorous co-design approach to ensure patient and clinician input to the solution.

With whom?

The platform provides users a mobile device application which interfaces securely with relevant medical data and facilitates remote access to key healthcare providers. EATG, the European HIV patient organisation, are providing a direct and deep interaction with representative patients and clinicians from 5 EU countries.

How?

EATG was the leader of WP8 – Dissemination and Popularisation. It has:

• established a website for EmERGE serving internal and external communication to interested parties
• provided regular updates and sharing of good practice and opportunity for discussion by beneficiaries during the EmERGE programme
• continued to disseminate study results to HIV patient community, the HIV scientific community and the mHealth technology communities.
• Initiated informing policy at national, European and wider international levels of the benefits of mHealth in HIV and potential extrapolation to other areas (geographical including developing countries, other chronic diseases).

EATG was also involved in WP2 ‐ Co‐Design and Sociotechnical Evaluation.

For what outcome?

Based on prior work showing a high uptake rate and use of mHealth in HIV patient populations, EmERGE demonstrated the benefits to patients and simultaneous increases in cost-effectiveness for healthcare providers by reducing face-to-face consultations, estimated at least 2,250 saved within this study alone.

EATG contact person(s):	Brian West – brian.west@eatg.org Ann Isabelle von Lingen – annisabelle.vonlingen@eatg.org
Duration of the project:	May 2015 – September 2020
Project/Initiative Leader:	University of Sussex (UOS)
Project/initiative Main Partner(s):	University of Sussex (UOS) UK; European Aids Treatment Group (EATG) DE; University of Brighton (UOB) UK; Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp (ITM) BE; Podmedics (POD) UK; Fundacio Privida Clinic per a la Recerca Biomedica (FCRB) ES; Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust (BSUHT) UK; Centro Hospitalar Lisboa (CHLN) PT; Klinika za Infektivne Bolesti (KIB) HR; National Prospective Monitoring System (NPMH) UK; Universidad Politecnica de Madrid (UPM) ES; mHealth Futures SME (mHF).
Budget:	Total: 5.457.483 € / EATG:  490.500 €
Main Funding Sources:	EC Horizon 2020
Links:	http://www.emergeproject.eu
Communication Disclaimer:	TThe EmERGE Project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 643736