Three academics at the DCU Centre for eIntegrated Care are leading research for GERONTE, a Horizon2020 project which has recently been awarded more than €5.9 million in funding from the European Union.

GERONTE is a streamlined geriatric and oncological evaluation based on Information Communication (IC) technology for holistic patient-oriented healthcare management for older multimorbid patients.

The DCU academics involved are Professor Anthony Staines from the School of Nursing, Psychotherapy and Community Health, and Professor Regina Connolly and Dr Paul Davis from the Business School. They are all members of the Centre for eIntegrated Care (CeIC).

This project will see a combining of expertise across the domains of public health and public sector digital transformation for the purpose of leveraging digital technology to improve the health care management and outcomes of co-morbid patients.

Older cancer patients’ care

Professor Daire Keogh, president of DCU, said: “This is a highly innovative project that has the potential to greatly improve older cancer patients’ care and quality of life.

"It’s expected that one in four people in Europe will be aged over 65 by 2050. This stark statistic underscores the importance of DCU-led research initiatives such as GERONTE in exploring new avenues for improving cancer care for older people.”

Prof Staines said: “This project links together a range of skills across DCU from nursing, ICT, and management, to develop a highly innovative and scalable solution to a challenging problem in delivering care to older people affected by cancer. It showcases the interdisciplinary and applied use of advanced skills, a type of work which characterises much of what DCU does.”

Prof Connolly said: “At DCU we are using our research to transform society. GERONTE will empower healthcare professionals, enabling them to harness digital technologies to co-partner with patients and their carers. In doing so, it will accelerate progress towards a patient-centred model of healthcare.”