The EVOTION Consortium is composed of thirteen (13) partners representing universities, hospitals, research organizations and companies from seven (7) EU member countries (i.e. UK, Denmark, Poland, Greece, Bulgaria, Croatia, and Italy) and one associate country (Switzerland). The consortium is carefully set up to combine multidisciplinary competencies from health policy making, clinical, academic, industry, and research community including partners willing to cooperate and sharing such diverse and complementary technical skills and clinical and scientific expertise required for the development of the EVOTION platform. The selection of partners was based on criteria of experience, expertise and most of all complementarity. All participants are highly committed to the development of the system, thus guaranteeing the realization of the project’s objectives.
Partners
Oticon A/S
Oticon coordinates the EVOTION project and provides competences in hearing aid technology, acoustics, diagnostics, and eHealth. Our main contribution is to connect state of art hearing aids to the EVOTION platform, transfer our knowledge about use of hearing aid techology into powerful interactions between end-users, hearing aid technology, and hearing care professionals, and finally combine our ability to analyse use of hearing aid technology with the other partners' competencies to collect evidence for public health policies.
EVOTION is hosted in the research areas eHealth and Advanced Algorithms at Eriksholm Research Centre in Snekkersten, Denmark.
Oticon is part of William Demant Group, a global market leader in hearing healthcare. We develop, manufacture and sell products and equipment that help people with hearing loss connect and communicate with the world around them. We focus on four business activities: Hearing Devices, Hearing Implants, Diagnostic Instruments and Personal Communication.
University College London
UCL will provide overall scientific coordination and will lead the clinical activities related to the validation of the EVOTION platform. It will also contribute to dissemination by using established UCL courses, public engagement events, national/international researcher and industry stakeholders workshops and other events to publicise the project and its results
Major activities
Establishing the ethical framework for the clinical work and obtaining appropriate approvals, in collaboration with all clinical partners
Engaging with the ENT Clinical Research Network to facilitate recruitment of 500 patients at UCL and allied partners/clinical sites.
Recruting and testing 500 hearing impaired patients incl atients with stroke, mild cognitive impairment and auditory neuropathy
Facilitating access to existing group hearing aid user anonymised data to support the big data analytics of the project
Supporting development of auditory testing and training tests and apps (theoretical knowledge, choice of test material)
Contributing to results analysis and interpretation across the relevant packages
Supporting dissemination activities (lead authorship of min 2 open access journal publications; 2 posters; 1 press release; 1 international single day workshop (planned for in February 2018).
Institute of Communication and Computer Systems
ICCS is responsible for the development of the Public Health Policy Decision Models (PHPDM) and the Decision Support System (DSS) of the EVOTION platform. Its main contribution to EVOTIOΝ focuses on:
b) the development of the DSS that will realize the PHPDM and the EVOTION front end visualization component that will encompass the integral parts of the EVOTION platform.
Based on expertise and knowledge acquired from continuous participations in EU projects, ICCS aims to actively transfer these into action and build upon the challenging tasks it is assigned, to ensure the overall quality of the project deliverables.
The City University London
The contributions of City will be based on the long standing expertise of CeNACS in software engineering, data analytics, cloud and mobile computing
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine
Instytut Medycyny Pracy imienia Prof. dra med. Jerzego Nofera (Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, NIOM) in Lodz, Poland, was established by the Minister of Health in 1954 with a status of a scientific research institute. Its’ activities focus on identification of risks to human health in working and general environments, development and implementation of prevention programs aimed at reducing the incidence of occupational diseases, including damage to the organ of hearing. Because of its social mission, NIOM collaborates closely with several governmental organizations, such as the Ministry of Health-Department of Public Health, the Social Insurance Institution and the State Sanitary Inspectorate.
NIOM will support the EVOTION project through our clinical expertise in prognosis and prevention of noise-induced hearing loss. We will also contribute to the identification of stakeholders (public health policy institutions, clinicians and audiologists) with the aim to elicit, specify and prioritize user requirements for the EVOTION solution. NIOM will contribute to the dissemination of the EVOTION project results through traditional academic channels (publications in scientific journals, presentations at national and international conferences, workshops), making the project achievements visible to public health policy organizations and liaising with other external research activities. In addition, the NIOM will be responsible for preparation of annual Dissemination Reports of the project.
Guy's and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust
Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust (GST) is a large publically funded healthcare provider based within the National Health Service (NHS) in London, UK. We are also part of King’s Health Partners, one of only five Academic Health Science Centres in the UK, bringing together an unrivalled range and depth of clinical and research expertise in healthcare. GST is recognised in the UK and beyond as a leading organisation in the delivery of healthcare research opportunities to the patients it serves.
This project is supported through our Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) and Audiology Department; one of the largest such departments in England.
Athens Technology Center SA
ATC is an Information Technology Company (SME) offering solutions and services targeting specific sectors incl. the Media, Banking and Retail Sectors, Utilities and Public Sector Organizations as well as horizontal solutions focusing on Content Management, Enterprise Software, Web Applications, Human Capital Resource Management and eLearning, and Mobile Applications.
ATC in the EVOTION project will aim at the Requirements and Design, especially targeting the identification and engagement of different stakeholders from whom requirements should be elicited for the EVOTION platform. Also, under the Requirements and Design tasks ATC will contribute to the definition of the overall architecture of the EVOTION platform and to the detailed specification of the design of its components. Moreover, ATC will lead the EVOTION solution integration of the different components that will be developed in WP4 and WP5, into a well-documented single platform at TRL-7. Finally, ATC plans to contribute to the development of the EVOTION components with a mobile application and a social media campaigning feedback collection component.
Institute of Public Health for the Osijek-Baranya County
Institute of Public Health for the Osijek-Baranya County (IPH) is a partner institution in EVOTION project. IPH is the largest public health institution in eastern Croatia. It has a wide spectrum of expertise in epidemiology, environmental health, pest control, clinical microbiology, school medicine, general public health and addiction prevention. Institute was established in 1925. The IPH collaborates with national Ministries, Universities, NGOs and international organizations.
IPH contribute in EVOTION's scientific and technical management, identification of different stakeholders, scenarios and requirements. IPH also works on EVOTION architecture, detailed design and in development of Public Health Policy Decision Models. One of the greatest challenges will be focused on validation of EVOTION platform as a public health policymaking tool. Impact assessment, exploitation and dissemination of the EVOTION project are also goals to which IPH will contribute.
Pazardzhik Regional Administration
Università degli Studi di Milano (UNIMI)
Università degli Studi di Milano (UNIMI) is a major higher education and research institution in Italy, offering degrees in all areas of science and humanities.
Athens Medical Center SA
Athens Medical Group (AMC) was founded in 1984 by Dr. G. Apostolopoulos with a vision to stop the outflow of Greek patients to established medical destinations in Western Europe and the USA. Today, AMC is a top-level European Medical Group, whose hospitals operate under the strictest international quality criteria, with specialised and experienced medical and nursing personnel and state-of-the-art medical equipment.
AMC’s mission is “to offer top medical services, abiding by the most austere international medical guidelines and certifications, with respect and dedication to the human being and by having a single aim for all of us, health improvement”. It has been listed on the Athens Stock Exchange since 1991, while Asklepios Kliniken GmbH, one of the largest Healthcare groups in Europe, which operates 140 medical units, is a major shareholder.
AMC runs 8 ultramodern hospitals with a capacity of 1200 beds and collaborates with more than 2,800 affiliated doctors of all specialties, with international careers in Europe and in the USA. It employs more than 3,000 personnel of medical, nursing, administrative and other functions and it cooperates with the most eminent Universities and Organisations of the World. In the greater Athens metropolitan area 7 hospital units are located: Athens Medical Center, Paediatric Center and GAIA Maternity Clinic in Maroussi, Psychiko Clinic, PaleoFaliro Clinic, Dafne Clinic, and Peristeri Clinic. The European Interbalkan Medical Center (EIMC) is located in the Northern part of Greece, in Thessaloniki. Additionally, AMC cooperates with an extensive nationwide network of more than 2,500 physicians, 390 diagnostic centers and 8 haemodialysis units whose aim is to offer vertically integrated healthcare services throughout Greece. In AMC annually there are 62,000 admissions, 48,000 surgical operations are performed, 6,800 births, 42,000 haemodialysis sessions and 14,000 check ups take place and 400,000 outpatients are treated. Its Emergency Medical Services (EMS) offer 24/7 urgent medical assistance and patient transportation with a fleet of fully equipped mobile intensive care units.
EMPELOR GMBH
Empelor’s contribution to the EVOTION project shall be reflected in various fields. Beginning with the platform overall requirements & design specifications, we shall shift to the development phase of the components required by the platform and then of course, integrate, test and deliver all above development into a single solution with state-of-the-art security and privacy features. Like all contributing partners, Empelor shall participate into the technical evaluation phase, as well as in the dissemination activities of the project.