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mHealth Competence Center Interview with Lovexair about its Educaxair Program

Interview with Aurora Ferrándiz, representative of Lovexair at MWC15, by the mHealth Competence Center of the Mobile World Congress about the EducaXair Project. mHealth: What is Educaxair?

 

 

Interview with Aurora Ferrándiz, representative of Lovexair at MWC15, by the mHealth Competence Center of the Mobile World Congress about the EducaXair project.

 

mHealth: What is Educaxair?

A. Ferrándiz: The EducaxAir system consists of a web platform for data recording and an app for mobile phone devices. From the web platform, a team of educators will be able to monitor the clinical data entered by patients, follow up on their evolution and contrast the information with medical specialists, who will also be able to access the platform. For its part, with the EducaxAir App, the patient will be able to receive personalized attention from an educator, ask questions about her illness and have the guarantee that a specialized team will monitor her continuously.

 

mHealth: At what stage is the project and how many professionals are using it? (Do you have any feedback?)

A. Ferrándiz: Right now, we are about to launch the service in a pilot in a clinical and virtual environment. As a Foundation that wants to provide a continuous support service to patients, this is a key moment, not only because of the intense dedication of all our collaborators who have contributed to offering a quality service, but also because we want to respond to the demand that exists in the society about this type of m-health services.

 

The latest IMSERSO statistics (Report 2012 on the elderly, from the Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality and the 2010 Survey on the Elderly) confirm this trend: both the elderly and those with some type of disability are demanding greater implementation of these ICTs for socio-health support and we wanted to respond to this demand, in the case of people with chronic respiratory diseases, seeking to improve the quality of life of the patient and family with low-cost solutions.

It was a need to cover, taking into account the scarcity of health platforms that integrate shared spaces for patients, what we know as "patient-centered service". As a patient-focused Foundation, we could not fail to be present at this important and innovative stage of m-health solutions

 

mHealth: What are the main challenges you encountered when creating the solution?

A. Ferrándiz: From the start, it has been -and continues to be!- an ambitious project, as shown by the difficulties we have had to face until we got here. In the first place, to agree on the points of view of the wide diversity of stakeholders that we have invited to participate in the development of the service, from scientists to patients, through health professionals, educators and IT experts. The chain has been very extensive in order to give the project the socio-sanitary focus that we needed and create a useful tool for all profiles.

 

 Secondly, it was necessary to achieve a quality service that was attractive enough for the patient to be willing to invest to have it at the click of a button.

 Finally, it has not been easy as a patient organization to lead a project of these characteristics, as they are not usually recognized in this environment. Without forgetting the economic circumstances that exist in almost all countries and that make it very difficult to find financial support for the development of these services. This has pushed us to create a quality service at a very low cost. Without the collaboration of all the stakeholders -public, private and individual- who have supported us, we would not have achieved a service adaptable to the circumstances of each country and with a quality-price formula adaptable to all users, third parties and end customers.

 

 mHealth: What do you think about intervening in the MWC and how do you think it can help the project?

A. Ferrándiz: For me and for the Foundation it is a very interesting experience because it can make the project known to the business and institutional partnering that attends a meeting of this magnitude. It is the ideal environment to continue expanding our experience in networking with other patient and family user support organizations and achieve our goal of implementing the service on a large scale and, therefore, reach the largest possible number of affected people in Spain. -and outside of Spain- that need a continuous solution for their chronicity.

 

 

It is also an ideal opportunity to get in touch with other partners that start from the SROI (Social Return on Investment) parameters as a company philosophy, that is, that integrate social value in the services offered.

 

 mHealth: Is there anything else you think is interesting to tell?

A. Ferrándiz: On the one hand, I wanted to emphasize that Educaxair is a service that, due to the nature of our Foundation, we launched with the community affected by respiratory diseases in mind. However, given its characteristics and thanks to the support of all collaborators, we have managed to make it a service that can be adapted to any type of chronic patient.

 

Finally, I would like to express my gratitude, on behalf of myself and the Foundation, to all the participants and collaborators who have made this project a reality and who have been involved to a greater or lesser extent. From health personnel, to scientists, ITs, patients, and a long etcetera who have pampered the project as something of their own and have attributed a tangible value to it for the future. To all of them a sincere “thank you”. We feel very honored to have found your invaluable support along the way in such difficult times.