IDEAHL – Improving Digital Empowerment for Active Healthy Living Program

IDEAHL is a Coordination and Support Action financed by Horizon Europe. Through the co-creation of a comprehensive and inclusive EU digital health literacy Strategy, it aims at developing and testing new models and approaches of digital health literacy intervention development and application. The ultimate purpose of the project will be to empower EU citizens in using digital tools to take a more active role in the management of their own health and well-being, as well as supporting social innovations for person-centered care models.

Multiple pilot actions of the Strategy are being piloted in the 10 project countries. From the testing and evaluation of the pilots, IDEAHL will be able to put forward a common EU monitoring model and indicators for dHL levels. Replication actions have been planned to support the scaling up opportunities for the adoption of the EU strategy and to favor the uptake of project results in the EU and beyond.

Why to Apply?

• The IDEAHL project is looking for 3 organizations located in the EU interested in replicating 1 of the pilot actions being carried out within the partnership. The IDEAHL Consortium, comprising multidisciplinary expert institutions, aims at providing the necessary support to the selected organizations to keep up with the ongoing process of healthcare delivery transformation towards digital solutions.
• It is ever more important to equip citizens with the knowledge and skills necessary to use the offered services effectively— overcoming potential barriers. Furthermore, digital health literacy progress also depends on healthcare institutions equipping healthcare professionals with the necessary competences to engage with innovative instruments and services.
• This experience will enable the selected organizations to implement strategies fostering the digital health literacy of both healthcare professionals and healthcare beneficiaries— adapting selected best practices at EU level to the specific characteristic of their territory and organization. IDEAHL Replicators will have:
  • The dedicated Help Desk and support service by the multidisciplinary project consortium (60 minutes monthly, online support)
  • The possibility to join planned IDEAHL workshops and seminars (costs covered at own expense)
  • The opportunity of showcasing the action’s implementation during a poster session at the high-level final conference of the project (to be held in April 2023 at the European Parliament premises (financed by the project)
  • Free access to all available tools developed within IDEAHL
  • Guaranteed networking among IDEAHL branded organizations and participation in annual networking events
  • Increased visibility at EU level through the project website and IDEAHL dissemination activities including powerful social media channels

What to Transfer and Replicate?

• The IDEAHL Strategy’s selected actions are being piloted by project partners at country/region level.
• The following 6 pilot actions have been selected as potential replicators. Together with a short description, the list includes related target groups and implementation’s timeframe.
  • Increase health professionals’ knowledge of and ability to uncover citizens and patients’ digital health competence (Denmark)
    • This widespread use of digital systems in the health sector led to health care professionals needing to develop the required competences to effectively use health care technologies and guide citizens in accordance with their (digital) health literacy level. For this reason, 3 workshops (60 minutes) will be organised, one with health care professionals and leading health care professionals (managers), another with teachers/lecturers and health educators, and the last one with leaders/managers in health education institutions and policymakers. The overall objective is to gain insight into increasing health professionals´ knowledge of and ability to uncover citizens and patients’ digital health competence thus, to support their dHL.
    • Target groups:
      • Healthcare professionals
      • Educators and teachers
      • Policymakers
  • Get active for your health (Spain)
    • Numerous reasons can hinder the (digital) health literacy level of the population, such as lack of free time or distance to urban centres. The action is structured as a multi-session online workshop to enable people to have a more active role in managing their health. It encourages the acquisition of healthy lifestyle habits and self-care. It provides tools to help people put into practice the new competences and knowledge acquired from the action— building a sense of self-efficacy and group support as pillars of the training programme. The training sessions will be delivered through an online training platform and participants will be able to access it 24/7 for 6 weeks, supported by two trained facilitators, a dedicated methodology and a training platform. The objective of the action is improved perceived self-efficacy in the self-management of participants’ health.
    • Target groups:
      • Citizens
      • Caregivers
      • People with chronic conditions
  • Information and Awareness Raising Campaign to Improve DL and dHL (Italy)
    • Older adults often suffer the consequences of an extremely accelerated digitalisation process— leading to increased barriers for less digitally skilled individuals, with a direct impact on the understanding, access, and use of (digital) health services. The information and awareness-raising campaign will be aimed at users over-65s and will focus on the presentation of the main health-related (digital) services and commonly used digital applications and programmes, knowledge of which is increasingly necessary for properly access and use health information and services and for managing daily life. The action will also provide printed information and illustrative material in the form of guides.
    • Target groups:
      • Older adults (65+)
  • Model for a Module – Digital Health in Healthcare Teaching (Ireland)
    • The education of healthcare professionals in relation to digital health is a fundamental building block for digital health literacy, as they not only need the tools and knowledge to understand and use digital health themselves, but also, to know how to best include care beneficiaries. The pilot activity entails a dialogue with policymakers and other relevant stakeholders to inquire about digital health in healthcare teaching. Questions will focus on the how to best include digital health in curricula for healthcare professions. The action consists of strategic interviews with stakeholders to uncover what and how to effectively design and implement a module to teach digital health literacy. Stakeholders to be interviewed include the European Medical Students Association and/or the Association for Medical Education in Europe; the European Federation of Nurses; and the WHO Academy Learning Design Team.
    • Target groups:
      • Healthcare student association
      • Professional healthcare organizations
      • Policymakers
  • Health literacy course for university students (Finland)
    • Fostering (digital) health literacy entrails equipping students wishing to become social and healthcare professionals, with the knowledge and competencies needed to take health literacy of the patients into consideration— while promoting accessible and patient-friendly communication and care. The action designed an online course for university of applied sciences students, titled “Health literacy and digital health literacy in health promotion”— as part of the master’s program of advanced clinical practitioners in Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences, Finland. The course is also available for other students as free elective studies. The education intervention activity aims at improving health literacy related knowledge of future social- and healthcare professionals in Finland. The course will include information on the concept of (digital) health literacy and its implications on public health and social and healthcare practice.
    • Target groups:
      • Social and healthcare students (Master level)
  • Cooking workshops – Good Food Good Mood (France)
    • The action aims to foster the adoption of better dietary practices of senior citizens to enhance physical and mental well-being. Moreover, the knowledge acquired about dietary practices significantly improves health literacy— enabling participants to make more informed health decisions. The pilot action will implement a series of nine cooking workshops connected to health themes— complemented by a final workshop framed as a cooking competition. Each workshop is constituted of two sessions. First, an online session allowing to discuss the workshop’s theme with a nutritionist. In the follow-up in-presence session participants will cook and share the meal all together. The workshops are a tool to inform seniors about healthy nutrition, prevention through nutrition and easy ways to have a balanced diet in their everyday life. Moreover, the social aspect of the activity holds a strong motivational aspect— contributing to further support participants’ active and healthy ageing.
    • Target groups:
      • Independent seniors

Who is Eligible?

• Eligible beneficiaries for this call are regional or national organizations operating within the healthcare sector, both from EU Member States and ENP countries. Applicants should have a good command of the English language. Possible replicators include:
  • Healthcare providers
  • Hospitals and healthcare facilities
  • Research institutions and universities
  • Municipalities and towns
  • Government agencies
  • Local communities
  • Local agencies
  • SMEs and Start-ups
  • Third sector organizations

For more information, visit IDEAHL.