"The purpose of the project is development of online educational program, training courses, and interactive assistance tools in the field of eHealth for practical work with people with disabilities, which encompasses e-learning resources development and program implementation. It will be created and maintained Virtual e-Health Center which will store the developed educational resources in combination with the produced and collected information about the needs in the field. The main objective is to develop distance learning program in the field of eHealth - working with people with disabilities, intended for students and professionals /as part of their continuing education/ in medicine, psychology, speech therapy and other professions, public health and health management, patient`s groups representatives, parents and relatives of people with disabilities. The project includes activities in development of the following intellectual products: Online learning program ""eHealth - working with people with disabilities""; Electronic manual in eHealth; Virtual center ""eHealth""; Tests and questionnaires for self-assessment with feedback and guidance for assistance and self-help for children and adults with developmental disorders and their families; Learning environment for patients with disorders and their families; Training videos and multimedia presentations; Practical exercises by introducing specialized software solutions for training in the field of eHealth; Practical exercises for operation with electrical and chemical biosensors for recording, analysis, visualization, transmitting physiological signal processing applications of 2D and 3D biomedical digital images; 3D reconstruction and development of training modules for demonstration printing; Open Source mobile, server and embedded applications; Model of self-educational course with feedback tests; Data analysis and publications. The produced educational resources will be free and available through the website of the virtual e-Health Center. The activities are realized through electronic communication among partners, international project meetings, teamwork, development of programs and e-learning resources, summarizing and analyzing the results, design and analysis of information, scientific publications. The project participants include: 1. New Bulgarian University - leading organization - NBU team includes experts in medicine with experience in working with people with disorders, research on children and adults with disorders and bilingualism, communication with people with disabilities, specialists in informatics and telecommunications with experience in developing e-learning resources, multimedia, mobile applications, software solutions for working with people with disabilities; 2. NTNU, Trondheim, Norway - partner with experience in the development of tests and online communication and consultation with people with developmental disorders, bilingual children with disorders, representatives of various cultural groups; 3. Hochschule Konstanz Technik Wirtschaft und Gestatung, Germany - partner with experience in the development and implementation of telemedicine projects in the field of eHealth; 4. Universitatea de medicina si farmace Victor Babes, Timisoara, Romania - partner with experience in adaptation, implementation and administration of online platforms for university studies; 5. The State Education Institution of higher professional training the First Sechenov Moscow State Medical University under Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation - partner with experience in organization and activities in the development of modern technologies (Internet, software and media) in the health field and experience in the creation and development of a virtual hospital. The associated partners are: ""Paradox Interactive"" Ltd. - a company specialized in designing, implementing and operating solutions for electronic distance learning and ""mHealth-Tech"" ltd., Moscow, Russia with experience in the field of studies on the application of new digital and communication technology to provide care and education to medical doctors an dpatients in remote mode. As a result of the realized activities the educational approaches will be developed new online program, creative interactive learning resources and tools in the field of eHealth, electronic learning resources for representatives of patient groups and people from different cultural communities, which will be implemented through partnerships with organizations from different countries and various fields of knowledge cooperation. The activities of the project meet the needs of developing innovative educational resources, increase the level of education and training of students and professionals and enable introduction of modern distance learning resources that can be used by teachers, students, professionals and people with disabilities and their families."

Nursing education in Europe has been built by guidelines of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) and European Union (EU) (EHEA, 2010; EU, 2005). The main goal is to increase staff and students' mobility and to facilitate employability. Higher education can no longer take place in the traditional way of sitting in a classroom. Nor can prospective students afford of taking time off from work to undertake a period of study. Flexible learning options, including part time study, accelerated programs, bridge programs and work based learning, blended programs are needed to ensure that nursing education is offered and delivered in the most cost-effective and time-efficient way. Therefore, these aspects have to be built into the programs through the delivery of educational technologies such as e-Learning, distance learning and virtual simulation. The growing importance of technology in health care calls for interdisciplinary study programs in which students with various backgrounds work together in exploring and designing new solutions for real-life problems. E-learning technologies have been explored extensively for students of health professionals in an academic context. This terminology involves a variety of electronic, digital or mobile devices used to support learning. E-learning has many advantages: it reduces time, it is flexible and accessible, it can be profitable and it allows students to learn at their own pace and from the place they choose. In addition, e-learning can present a variety of multimedia components such as text, audio, still images and moving images to support the acquisition of knowledge and skills. Results of systematic reviews support that this is an effective alternative way to learn . Some reviews on e-learning used by nurses or nursing students has positive impacts, especially knowledge, level of self-efficacy, attitudes, barriers and facilitators, skills and satisfaction regarding the use of e-learning .For this reason, it is necessary to work on the development of tools that facilitate student e-learning and that are integrated efficiently within the training and educational programs.For all the above, the general aim of the project “Digital Toolbox for innovation in nursing education (I-BOX)” is to design and develop audiovisual materials in open-access format related to procedures and nursing techniques in a simulation environment that will help graduate nursing students to improve their education and training. All this materials will be shared on a digital and collaborative tool that will allow restructuring content in m-learning format. This project will be developed by five higher education institutions from Spain, Slovenia, Russia, Finland and Austria that offers nursing programs working together in a Strategic Partnership. This Strategic Partnership will create a network of universities involved in developing new materials in nursing education, to achieve the following specific goals and related activities:•To develop educational and audiovisuals e-learning material (videos, postcasts..) following ASSURE model related to procedures and nursing techniques in a simulation environment. ASSURE is an instructional design model that has the goal of producing more effective teaching and learning.•To validate and adapt to cultural context the DREEM tool to Spanish and Russian language. The Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM) was published in 1997 as a tool to evaluate educational environments of medical schools and other health training settings.•To develop a virtual space (on line platform) in web format where students and teachers can share the material and information in open access (scientific articles, tools, infographics, news, etc.). In this platform will be a space for virtual debate where students and teachers from different countries can share doubts and raise real situations to solve collaboratively. •To develop recommendations of best practices to implement educational e-learning material within the Nursing Education (theoretical or practical subject). The fact that these audiovisual materials are open-access enables students, teachers and also health professionals to keep updated on the techniques, share knowledge without borders and therefore ease generation of new expertise. It also aims to be a reference tool for all kind of educational organizations and professional individuals that enables to spread knowledge at all levels.The objectives of the I-BOX project are aligned with the horizontal strategy of open education and innovative practices in a digital era, because promotes innovative methods and pedagogies and develops digital learning materials and tools open-access.

Chronic disease is the major cause of death in the partner countries, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Russia.All the partner country governments have prioritised action in relation to chronic disease. The World Health Organisation point out that there is a need to increase the capacity of health care workers in this area and has noted that training of health care staff at primary level is inadequate to deal with diabetes. To improve healthcare outcomes and reduce the economic burden of chronic disease, enhanced training at post-graduate level is necessary. There is very little or no provision in the specific area targetted by this project in the partner countries.The specific objective of the project is to support the modernisation of the curriculum by developing new and innovative courses and methodologies in health studies related to chronic disease at masters level.The key deliverables are: •conducting a study tour of EU universities; •developing the approach and requirements for the masters programme; •developing programme curricula in line with the ECTS guidelines; •developing 12 modules and short courses; •developing a staff training and mobility programme; •running three one- week competence enhancing courses in the EU; •running 32 one-week “train the trainers” courses in partner HEIs. •launching the masters programmes with further “train the trainers” courses; •conducting 3 one-month long student mobilities.The impact of the project will be felt in the health sector by having health care workers trained in the new curricula, i.e. the use of the holistic approach to patient care and public health promotion, which acts as a model for other specialists in the sector. The final beneficiaries from the project are the patients who ultimately benefit from improved health competencies and governments who can reduce the costs of treating chronic disease.

Health security and the organization and management of the quality of health-care system concern all countries. To cope with this, well-trained specialists in specific and adapted methodologies are needed. The participating partner countries suffer from a lack of qualified graduates (managers, doctors, or any other profession involved in the health-care quality system and services).The need for university training for specialists in this field is therefore very strong. Staff capable of developing and delivering continuing professional education is also necessary for professionals to adapt to the latest developments in this constantly evolving field. The project meets these needs with the development of study programs in the targeted areas.Contribute to the development of health security and the organization and management of the quality of health-care by mobilizing training engineering to operationalize the necessary actions, by offering academic and professional training programs capable of transmitting the skills required by medical structures / companies.The new programs created will be entirely or partially delivered remotely. The programs developed will meet the needs of companies / medical structures in need of specialists capable of improving health security and managing the quality of health care. The implementation of the project must / will be based on a broad interinstitutional partnership to guarantee the sustainability of the results.The ministries of education and health will support the project in partner countries. They will guarantee compliance with standards for the sustainability of the new training offer.Professional organizations and medical structures will be the guarantors of professional outlets for training courses for graduates.