<< Background >>TO BE PART OF THE CREATION OF A COMMUNITY OF CITIZENS CONTRIBUTING TO A DIGITAL SOCIETY THAT IS SUSTAINABLE, INCLUSIVE, SUPPORTIVE AND RESPECTFUL OF THE ENVIRONMENT.With the check-ups that needed to be organised remotely, the pandemic has shown how important is that each patient takes charge of its own care, as this medical follow-up requires digital tools, leaving a large number of citizens in a difficult situation. In this context, our project, named Pragma-TIC, aims at bridging the digital divide for chronic patients suffering from digital illiteracy by giving the possibility to the frontline caregivers to become their e-health educators. To do this, Pragma-TIC will train the care staff and their patients in an innovative (blended learning) and inclusive way. The aim is to propose a solution, in order to reunite the strengths and resources that will allow each stakeholder to benefit from the work done by the group.This project will be carried out in collaboration with several European countries (Belgium, Latvia, Slovenia and Denmark). Hospitals in European countries need to implement digital support for their patients and frontline caregivers. Pragma-TIC proposes to implement a transnational educational project to address this need which will ultimately improve the health and quality of life of patients and relieve the workload of frontline carers in the long run. Through the support of Europe, Pragma-TIC will open doors that individual members of the Consortium would not have had access to on a national, regional or simply local level. It thus extends the scope and increases the visibility of the project.By responding to the KA220-ADU call, we wish to validate the competences acquired in digital literacy through non-formal certificates delivered by health institutions. Two levels of certifications will be targeted. At the level of the caregiver, the first level concerns the e-educator (involved caregivers) who will find themselves validated as educators and will use those new skills to train other patients. The second level concerns the e-educator + who will be able to train his peers. At the patient level, the first level concerns the e-patients who will find themselves assessed as capable of having a follow-up at home. The second level concerns the e-patients + who will use their new skills to train their fellow patients. The e-educator certificates will be integrated into the professional portfolio of the caregiver and those of the e-patient in patient's medical record.This project aims to meet the needs of the 3 actors of the health sector, which are the Hospital Institutions, the frontline caregivers (field staff) and the patient.HOSPITAL INSTITUTIONSare considerably short of beds, means and resources, while the number of patients is increasing exponentially. Therefore, the continuation of care in the patient's home is absolutely necessary and must be of high quality. FRONTLINE CAREGIVERS Lack the time and the means to educate their patients. Pragma-TIC will allow the patients to be trained in new learning modes, in order to evolve professionally and to be better prepared for any unforeseen circumstance, to feel involved and more valued as caregivers through a non-formal certificate.While they are looking for solutions with their project colleagues, they will be able to share through forums or exchange networks their difficulties and more. They will also create a community of carers on an international scale.The project will support the field staff in their role of therapeutic educators by implementing digital and pedagogical tools shared among peer carers. PATIENTS The chronic patients is isolated at home in the face of new technologies that they do not master.They lack the resources, the contacts, the self-confidence and the support.manage to teach the patients to be resilient by getting control back over their life project and their care (autonomy);- involve them in a learning process<< Objectives >>This project aims to meet the needs of the 3 main actors, i.e. the Hospital Institutions, the frontline caregivers and patients.The implementation of the project aims to overcome the digital divide in an inclusive way in order to access all the resources and benefits that telemonitoring offers in the health care environment. HOSPITAL INSTITUTIONSThis project will contribute to the digital and sustainable transformation of healthcare institutions while promoting savings in terms of human, material and financial resources. It should reduce the overcrowding of hospitals, which has a negative impact on the quality of care.At the same time, we want to collaborate and cooperate across the board and on all levels of competence and decision-making power, in order to facilitate the digital transition in the health sector.FRONTLINE CAREGIVERS In order to provide e-Health training in compliance with the RGPD, our values, and ethics, we want to help field staff to integrate e-Health into their daily work as educators. Therefore, it is imperative to provide them with the opportunity to develop skills through appropriate didactic and pedagogical materials. This will enable them to transfer to the patients in a sustainable way the knowledge and skill necessary to master telemonitoring so that, autonomously, the patients continue to follow their treatment in all circumstances in a secure manner and stay in contact with their care partner. PATIENTS To improve their quality of life through TELEMONITORING. It is imperative to strengthen the ability to LEARN TO TRANSMIT via the BLENDED LEARNING. Other objectives are to enable the patient to:- learn the basic techniques and knowledge (touch screen, keyboard, voice recognition, etc.) needed to use computer systems- search for and collect relevant and secure information- communicate with messaging software, chat, and on a forum with peers and carers- develop critical thinking skills in relation to digital technology (understanding the benefits of the Internet and its risks).OBJECTIVES1.Developing flexible and innovative education that promotes patients’ INCLUSION in digital literacy, so that they can acquire a minimal digital skill basis while evaluating them on a regular basis allowing them to use the Internet safely, health apps and medical devices. Developing or improving adult, and particularly elderly, patients’ Digital Health Literacy to empower them to manage their health.2. Using technology to engage in A DIGITAL PEDAGOGY adapted to their PTS, CGS could contribute to the design and development of toolkits, participate in a clinical study that aims to assess the usefulness of the toolkits for PTS, and exchange good, digitalized practices with peers and PTS.3. Building a PATIENT-ORIENTED digital learning platform in health (Pragma-TIC) as an intervention method to gain autonomy and eventually reintegrate in society after a pathology. It will help patients take responsibility (respecting their choices), understand their disease, change their behavior, apply their treatment (observance) and use tele-health tools. It will host a training catalog, digital support (in all partner languages + English) in digital health education co-created by the project partners and validated by the PT Committee of the partner hospitals.The other objectives we want to achieve are the following:- ensuring that the frontline caregivers are capable of accompanying the TELEMONITORING of chronic patients by facilitating their autonomy;- to make the patient feel secure by the support provided; - to acquire a sufficient base of techniques and knowledge to conduct educational activities and analyse the results;- to be part of an international community of caregivers; - to apply safety rules and good practice guidelines;- to provide clear, constructive and supportive feedback to patients and peers<< Implementation >>For 24 months, 20 frontline/field nurses from 4 hospitals will contribute to the development of digital health literacy skills for nearly 200 chronic patients (whose health condition requires daily care and are vulnerable) so that they can become more autonomous thanks to remote monitoring.IMPLEMENTATION: METHODOLOGY USED The implementation of the project consists in developing a simple, practical e-learning platform (in English and in the 4 languages of the Consortium), favouring through the blended-learning method the better understanding of the Web, medical devices tools, health Apps and other classic telecommunication tools.This platform will offer educational toolkits co-constructed and validated by the caregivers on the basis of their pedagogical tutorials. It will also provide access to places ideal for exchanges between patients, caregivers and their international peers, such as forums, messaging server, etc. The anonymization and RGPD will be guaranteed.PLANNING FOR THE CREATION OF THIS PLATFORMThe Co-CREATION of this platform will be organised over 2 years in 4 steps.Step 1Conceptualisation and requirements for the project, research, studies, analysis, reporting and co-creation of a learning tutorial repository validated by pedagogy specialists. Step 2Development and/or reinforcement of adult-friendly pedagogy and e-learning among frontline health workers who will participate in the study. They will get a better grasp of the e-Health tools with hybrid learning methods, either in self-taught or group settings. Their objective will be to build their own training plan for their patient. In order to experiment and readjust it, they will also train groups of digitally compromised patients by immersing them directly in digital learning via groups or individual sessions, via synchronous or asynchronous webinars. During this period, the carers will create their dashboard in which they will enter data that will be used to assess the benefits of this method.The caregivers will evaluate the results, readjust their training plan, model it and then MAKE IT SUBSTAINABLE AND SHARE IT WITH THEIR PAIRS. Patients from this first pool will also be very closely involved in the process and will complete satisfaction and self-assessment questionnaires. The caregivers will adjust their working methods based on the answers collected and update the contents of the platform.After step 2, all participants (caregivers and patients) will form a committee with the associated partners to establish the sustainability of the project.Step 3 A second pool of patients will be recruited. The group will be accompanied by the first pool of field staff in order to reinforce or readjust the process. Step 4 Preparation and presentation of the guidelines and recommendations on our platform which will be presented at the transnational closing meeting of the project and accessible to all interested parties.<< Results >>RESULTS and OTHER EXPECTED OUTCOMES 1.To relieve for overloaded hospital institutions and very expensive emergency departments.2.To lessen the risk of contracting nosocomial diseases. 3.To return or keep the patient at home with an economic and psychological impact on his health.4.To open new possibility of life goals with an impact on the patients’ acceptance of their treatment and on the positive evolution of their health condition. 5.To create a community of peer carers internally and internationally, as well as be part of it. 6. To harmonise the remote follow-up of the chronic patient and maintain the therapeutic link EVEN ABROAD or in remote rural areas.7.To strengthen the patient's ability to keep learning while developing a critical mind towards the digital world.8.To give access to the patient staff to training in an ATYPICAL environment reinforcing LIFELONG LEARNING.9.To reduce the carbon impact by cutting out any unnecessary travel to the hospital. 10.To reduce the carbon impact with fewer hospital visits. SUSTAINIBILITY through its TRANSFERABILITY to other institutions or sectors.

<< Background >>This project aims to increase the resilience competencies of mental health professionals (MHPs) in Europe, through non-formal distance-learning training. Specifically, the project will focus on factors that buffer the effects of work-related stressors on MHPs, who are at risk of burn-out and compassion fatigue, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The project also aims to boost their psychological resilience against work adversities and enhance thus the quality of mental – health care provision.Covid situation has serious effects in the mental health of most people with longitudinal studies to show increase in anxiety, depression, and symptoms of PTSD (Wang et al., 2020; Gaur et al., 2020; Brooks et al., 2020; Argyropoulos et al., 2021). This situation has a serious impact in MHPs as they have to deal with more clinical cases, severe relapses and more serious psychological symptoms, when at the same time they have to deal with the impact of covid situation in themselves, in their families and loved ones.Additionally to this difficult social situation, MHPs are also exposed to secondary traumatization, while trying to stay empathetically connected to people suffering. In the literature, secondary traumatization is described as compassion fatigue (Lakioti et al., 2020). Compassion fatigue affects all caring professions (such as counselors, nurses, doctors and teachers) and the most common symptoms are chronic physical and emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation, feelings of inequity, touchiness, headaches, loss of weight and negative feelings toward work, life and others outside the caring relationship (Negash & Sahin, 2011). Especially for MHPs, compassion fatigue is also linked with self-contempt, feelings of low job satisfaction, psychosomatic ailments, absenteeism or substance abuse (Singh et al., 2020).The most appropriate way to protect and empower MHPs is the training in techniques that help them build psychological resilience. Psychological resilience refers to the maintenance or recovery of one’s mental health, when subjected to stress, adversity, or traumatic experience (Rutter, 1999). In the workplace, resilience is mainly focused on the mitigation of stress effects, through behaviors that enhance positive adaptation and positive functioning (Tusaie & Dyer, 2004). Also, current results in psychotherapy research examining the therapists’ contribution to patients’ outcomes indicate the importance of therapists’ wellbeing and resilience. Specifically, Pereira et al. (2017) showed through multilevel modelling therapists’ resilience and wellbeing to be positively associated with therapists’ effectiveness and patient outcomes (Pereira et al., 2017). Consequently, in these difficult times for MHPs the need to support them and train them properly to face the adversity of their jobs and everyday lives becomes comparative.Yet, research and implementation strategies to combat work-related stress and compassion fatigue in mental health care have mainly focused on tackling the risks instead of increasing the protective resources that sustain and promote resilience against work challenges, thus rendering a more comprehensive and multi-disciplinary training approach warranted.Building resilience after the COVID-19 era, is one of the main competencies that should be developed, especially to the MHPs, due to the pressure and exhausting circumstances that these professionals face due to the pandemic breakdown. Furthermore, this project aims to empower their competencies, such as resilience, IT skills, etc. for being more efficient and for reducing the possibilities of burn-outs and compassion fatigue due to work overload and due to the severity of the clinical cases. Consequently, training MHPs in techniques that help them face the adversity in a way that promotes personal and professional growth will be of great help not only for them but also for the clients they work with.<< Objectives >>Globally, people experience enormous mental health challenges, whether they are infected with COVID-19 or not (Tandon, 2020). These challenges affect different groups of people (general population, COVID-19 patients, elderly, healthcare workers, marginalized population) differently in terms of its nature and severity. Research shows that mental healthcare need during this COVID-19 pandemic is high among the general population (Roy et al., 2020) and that mental health of MHPs is affected adversely (Galbraith et al., 2020). As the number of mental health issues related to COVID-19 is emerging exponentially, it puts the MHPs under tremendous pressure. Other than dealing the mental health issues, MHPs are also engaged in additional responsibility, which is likely to increase their stress and adversely affect their own mental health.The COVID-19 has a great impact on healthcare workers that includes negative mental health outcomes, such as post-traumatic stress, anxiety and depressive symptoms. There is a common belief that MHPs have strong mental health abilities to deal with challenges and are expected to be strong and free from stress. However, they are also humans and vulnerable to frustrations, stress and depression and this notion stigmatizes psychiatry and mental health professionals (Kumar Kar, 2020). The project aims to equip MHPs with innovative educational tools aimed to enhance their resilience, wellbeing, the level of knowledge, skills, and resources from the scope of Positive Psychology, the science of happiness, and its applications in Adult and VET Education through Positive Counselling. More specifically, the target groups of this project are the following: (1) Mental healthcare professionals (Psychologists, Psychiatrists, Psychotherapists, Social Workers, Counsellors, Mental Health Nurses, Occupational and Speech Therapists), who are at high risk of burnout due to increased work-related stressors because of the pandemic and the type of their profession. (2) VET Providers (adult trainers, social workers, educators, psychologists, counselors, coaches), who work with mental health professionals. (3) Indirect target group are the end-users (people who receive mental healthcare services).OBJECTIVES-To address current needs and challenges of MHPs to cope with COVID-19 related stress and face secondary traumatic situations.-To quip MHPs with the resilience competencies required in order to minimize risk factors and cultivate protective factors against work-related stress and burnout; and thus, be able to provide a higher quality service to their clients. -Το engage MHPs in self-care evidence-based practices derived from the field of Positive Psychology to deal with work related stressors and prevent job burnout.-To enhance health professionals’ and VET trainers’ digital skills and creativity through the resilience exercises to confront practical COVID-19 consequences.-To equip MHPs and VET providers with useful resources that will empower the mental healthcare professions.-To provide non-formal educational methods that can be combined with formal education.-To provide interactive digital resources, which will be available to trainers-educators and health professionals to improve achievement in high-level basic and transversal competences in a lifelong learning perspective to confront work-related adversities.-To promote the effective provision of healthcare, taking into consideration the significance of providers’ resilience competencies for a cost-effective healthcare system that is efficient against the new challenge of COVID-19 pandemic.-To increase awareness and sensitize the decision-makers of educational and health policies in the partner countries concerning the critical role and needs of healthcare providers.-To set off an international conversation and create a Positive Community between health professionals and intercultural dialogue on ways to protect them from COVID-19 related stress.<< Implementation >>POSITIVE ACADEMY will implement the following activities. To come up with the Baseline Report and Digital Storytelling Clips (R1), the partners will explore the resilience skills, resources, and competences that MHPs and VET providers need to cultivate. Questionnaires on the training needs of MHPs will be administered in each partner country to elicit information regarding the resources, skills, and competencies they employ to cope with work-related stressors during the pandemic. A virtual focus group will help identify additional training needs of MHPs and explore their expectations regarding training material, while 4 digital storytelling clips will be conducted and recorded, where storytellers will share their personal experiences. Each partner will sum up the data at national level, and all national reports will be integrated in the Final Baseline Report that will set the main thematic areas, based on which the project’s training material will be developed. Each country will organize a short online dissemination event with MHPs, VET trainers, and stakeholders, who will be encouraged to disseminate the outcomes and use them in their job. POSITIVE ACADEMY’s e-kit training content (R2) for the development of MHPs’ resilience skills will then be created. The theoretical framework of resilience and hands-on activities will be developed. Piloting and evaluation will take place to improve training materials and guidelines, including an online train-the-trainer webinar on how to use the training platform, a joint activity to get the main trainers trained and prepared for the forthcoming piloting period and the implementation of the Webinars with the trainees. The e-kit contents will be finalised and will be freely accessible on the project platform for the pilot participants, after they register their interest and affiliation with mental health organizations. A short online dissemination event will be organized by each partner.The E-POSITIVE ACADEMY for MHPs will then be created (R3). A digital platform including a Serious Game for Moodle and an E-Kit will be developed where the R2 material will be uploaded as e-Courses to the Digital Learning Platform. R3 aims to enhance MHPs’ resilience by linking experiential learning scenarios and adult education methodologies with resilience building resources. R3 will integrate different interactive areas of the Learning Platform, which will facilitate online interaction and networking. The Digital Learning Environment, connected to the project website, will include storytelling clips (from R1), training methodologies, activities and tools, and the Serious Game for resilience-building that will provide a virtual role-play simulation for MHPs, and will launch as a mobile and a web app. The digital content will be used for online/offline self-study and self-growth. Piloting and evaluation will take place with three events so that feedback can be provided: an online train-the-trainer webinar on how to use the training platform and the Serious Game, a face-to-face joint activity where participants will interact with other Serious Game users, and a national pilot where each country will demonstrate locally the Serious Game to participants and conduct a virtual Focus Group. Gained competences by trainees will be certified, providing the opportunity for a Network of certified MHPs to arise. A short online dissemination event will be organized by each partner.This links to R4, which aims to create a non-formal Network of representative organizations and MHPs all around Europe. The consortium will organize 5 European Info Days (1 per month) where the “Positive Community” members will sign a Memorandum of Collaboration, followed by the generation of a “Dream Project” idea regarding the promotion of MHPs psychological resilience, wellbeing and job flourishing, with the ultimate goal to ensure ways to continue their Network even after the project’s completion.<< Results >>POSITIVE ACADEMY is expected to produce four distinct results:R1 Baseline Report and Digital Storytelling Clips: R1 aims to identify resilience skills, resources, and competences that MHPs and VET providers should enhance. Questionnaires on the training needs of MHPs will provide information regarding their coping strategies against work-related and COVID-19 related stressors. A virtual focus group to identify the training needs of MHPs and explore their expectations regarding training material will be held in each country. Four digital personal experiences storytelling clips based on the Role Models technique will be conducted and recorded. All these data gathered will be summed up in the national reports that will be consequently integrated into the Final Baseline Report. The document will be available on the project platform and will set the main thematic areas, based on which the training material of the project will be developed.R2 E-kit material for the development of MHPs’ resilience skills: The training material will be based on EQF (European Qualification Framework) and ECVET (European Credit system for Vocational Education & Training) guidelines. Training contents entail description of learning outcomes based on the Needs Analysis, integration of resources that fit the learning objectives, and definition of total learning hours (e.g. hands-on practice, self-study). Training materials will include the theoretical framework of resilience from the Positive Psychology perspective, together with hands-on activities that will combine different methodologies and techniques. The e-kit contents will be finalized after piloting and evaluation procedures and will be freely accessible on the project platform for the participants in the pilot. An innovative training methodology that will meet the need for empowering MHPs’ resilience is essential nowadays that virtual environments are becoming the main mode of working and studying.R3 E-POSITIVE ACADEMY for MHPs: a digital platform including a Serious Game for Moodle and an E-Kit will be created. The Digital Learning Environment, connected to the project website, will include storytelling clips (from R1), training methodologies, activities and tools, and the Serious Game for resilience-building that will provide a virtual role-play simulation and create a space for reflection and sharing for MHPs. R3 will facilitate online interaction and networking by encouraging engagement with the contents and the Serious Game, aiming to enhance MHPs’ resilience by linking experiential learning scenarios and adult education methodologies with resilience building resources. The digital material will be finalized after piloting and evaluation procedures and will be used for online/offline self-study and self-growth. Certification based on the ECVET accreditation system will be given to trainees for gained competencies. Thus, a Network of certified MHPs will be created that will maximize the impact of the project. The gamification approach combined with the Positive Psychology theoretical framework that underpins R2, will create a powerful tool and promote deep learning, while the Serious Game that will lunch as an app on Google Play for mobile devices and as a web app will strengthen the impact of R3.R4 European Mental Healthcare Community: Five EU Info Days (one per month) will be held to gather (trans)national MHPs, MHP associations, organizations, and local authorities. This Network will address MHPs’ wellbeing and will focus on the creation of a “Positive community” involved in training and dissemination activities. A Memorandum of Future Collaboration will be signed aiming to sustain the project outcomes after its completion. A report of the “Dream Project” idea that will accrue from a Virtual Discussion on promoting MHPs’ psychological resilience, wellbeing and job flourishing will be established by the consortium partners, which will participate in the Closing Multiplier event.

In recent years, Federated Learning (FL) has emerged as a revolutionary privacy-enhancing technology and, consequently, has quickly expanded to other applications. However, further research has cast a shadow of doubt on the strength of privacy protection provided by FL. Potential vulnerabilities and threats pointed out by researchers included a curious aggregator threat; susceptibility to man-in-the-middle and insider attacks that disrupt the convergence of global and local models or cause convergence to fake minima; and, most importantly, inference attacks that aim to re-identify data subjects from FL’s AI model parameter updates. The goal of TRUMPET is to research and develop novel privacy enhancement methods for Federated Learning, and to deliver a highly scalable Federated AI service platform for researchers, that will enable AI-powered studies of siloed, multi-site, cross-domain, cross border European datasets with privacy guarantees that exceed the requirements of GDPR. The generic TRUMPET platform will be piloted, demonstrated and validated in the specific use case of European cancer hospitals, allowing researchers and policymakers to extract AI-driven insights from previously inaccessible cross-border, cross-organization cancer data, while ensuring the patients’ privacy. The strong privacy protection accorded by the platform will be verified through the engagement of external experts for independent privacy leakage and re-identification testing. A secondary goal is to research, develop and promote with EU data protection authorities a novel metric and tool for the certification of GDPR compliance of FL implementations. The consortium is composed of 9 interdisciplinary partners: 3 Research Organizations, 1 University, 3 SMEs and 2 Clinical partners with extensive experience and expertise to guarantee the correct performance of the activities and the achievement of the results.

This icovid project is the continuation of the pro bono icovid initiative that developed the CE-marked and FDA permitted AI-based CT analysis software, icolung, and made it available in over 65 hospitals worldwide. The icovid project aims to improve the software making it of greater value as the clinical needs evolve, validating it in renowned academic centers and deploying it at large-scale across Europe. icolung is expected to have a significant societal impact by increasing confidence when making a CT diagnosis and providing accurate quantification of disease and prognostic information in patients with suspected COVID-19 disease. Importantly, even in a low prevalence setting icolung may have a much higher sensitivity and a comparable specificity for the diagnosis compared to the RT-PCR testing used currently. Identifying infected patients earlier will reduce the risk of further contamination and allows the right patient management to start earlier. icolung also predicts the risk of developing severe COVID-19 disease for which ICU admission and mechanical ventilation are required, allowing optimization of patient care. This project will significantly strengthen the position of two European SMEs in the rapidly growing market of AI in healthcare. One of them is coordinating the project and the consortium involved, enabling quick responses in a rapidly changing environment. The consortium builds further on existing organic collaboration and contains world-renowned experts of which multiple are part of the Executive Committee of the European Society of Thoracic Imaging.