ICT-ROLLATOR

PROJECT

The ICT-ROLLATOR (Innovative ICT-based Rollator to promote Active and Healthy Aging in preventive and therapeutic conditions) is a two year  BMBF   (Project N° 01DH21023A ) funded project under the German-Tunisian Science and Technology Cooperation Research Project. 

The main aim of the project  is to advance the internationalization of research, fostering innovative German-Tunisian collaborations in the sphere of applied research, specifically in the realm of digitalization.  Our initiative is primarily focused on the development of digital health technology solutions with specific emphasis on :

• Enhancing psychomotor functions
• Fostering social participation for both:
• Healthy elderly individuals, through preventive measures
• Unwell elderly individuals, via rehabilitative strategies

The primary aim of the ICT-ROLLATOR initiative is to create and verify two iterations of a pioneering ICT-based rollator to enhance psychomotor skills and social interaction among healthy and ill elderly individuals in a secure setting. The initial approach involves guaranteeing user safety by amalgamating obstacle and fall-risk detection sensors with heart rate monitoring tools in a current Rollator model, under the direction of our TDS partner.

The other groundbreaking features of ICT rollators are primarily developed next. The following phase focuses on establishing the digitized personalized psychomotor training program and accompanying apps, software, and tools. This phase is overseen by OvGU with assistance from UoSF and IDM partners. Furthermore, we aim to create the open social inclusion platform, incorporating a data privacy approach, under the leadership of UoSF with support from OvGU.

After the components are developed, the integration process occurs. This process is executed by IDM, assisted by TDS, to deliver two prototype versions of the ICT Rollator. The first is designed to enhance psychomotor functions in healthy older adults (User-driven ICT-Rollator), while the second aims to promote a therapeutic training program for elderly people with mental and/or motor decline (Electric-driven ICT-Rollator).

Both versions undergo testing and validation in a bicenter study, offering opportunities to collect user and expert feedback to enhance the prototypes and devise an effective approach for the ICT-Rollator's implementation into EU and North African healthcare systems.