Official launch of TIQUE, a pre-commercial procurement (PCP) project, funded by the EU Horizon 2020 program under Grant Agreement No 965356, investing in Research and Development (R&D) services to bring to the market “innovaTIve care services, enhanced with technology, to deliver QUick rEsponses for individuals with advanced heart failure and complex care needs through integrated care”.

TIQUE brings together 8 partners from 5 countries, with three public procurers: Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau (Catalonia), Azienda Sanitaria Locale Avellino (Italy) and Region Västerbotten (Sweden) and five supporting partners (AQuAS, TICSalut, Assuta Medical Center, Jera Consulting and VALDE Innova).

Chronic conditions are on the rise worldwide. An ageing population and changes in societal behaviour are contributing to a steady increase in these common and costly long-term health problems. European countries, as many other countries worldwide, face a rapid growth in the number of inhabitants living with chronic conditions and multimorbidity (i.e. the co-existence of two or more chronic diseases), which sets a high pressure on their health systems.

The care model in place for these patients implies one specialist for each comorbidity, primary healthcare for the day to day, and frequently formal and informal carers, leading to fragmented healthcare delivery. The medication becomes complex to manage and risky if not handled properly. The problem is that this care team does not behalf in a coordinated manner and the global vision, including psychological and environmental circumstances, is commonly lost.

Heart failure probably represents the most daunting challenge among all chronic illnesses due to its increasing prevalence, its direct and associated morbidity, and its significant dependence on hospital-based care that generates worrying economic costs. Moreover, poor management of this condition can increase the risk and frequency of acute episodes resulting in hospitalizations, poor quality of life for patients and high burden on healthcare systems. Each acute episode can, in turn, worsen the chronic condition leading to reduced cardiac function, high morbidity and mortality.

TIQUE relies on the fact that when dealing with chronic diseases, a strict patient follow-up prevents these costly deteriorations. The current ICT offer allows the use of technological tools such as sensors for monitoring patients in real time, and going a little bit further, artificial intelligence or big data can help preventing an exacerbation crisis. TIQUE plans to make extensive use of monitoring devices, data, and algorithms to successfully anticipate the care needs of a patient at risk.

TIQUE also combines community intervention with digital insight to support patients and carers as they are usually in a personal hard situation, motivation and human support for both of them are critical.

TIQUE intervention is based on “integrated care”, which means building a comprehensive vision of the person, shared with the care team, and guaranteeing a continuity of care by the most suitable professional at each time.

And finally, TIQUE is looking for impact. Impact means long term sustainability, best clinical and perceived solution to patients, and better optimization of the time of health professionals.

For this reason, TIQUE is willing to purchase the research and development of the design of a technology-enabled all-in-one service, flexible enough to adapt to a large variety of European healthcare systems. This will allow the full development of the value-based TIQUE model tailored to each of the participant procurers complementing existing public resources with a public-private partnership. TIQUE will bridge the gap between offer and demand by creating a new generation of high tech market solutions to implement integrated care. It will focus on approaches to treatment for patients with advanced heart failure and co-existing chronic conditions, frail or at risk of becoming frail. TIQUE will do that by subcontracting R&D services to the industry within a competition, articulated under the funding instrument called Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP). PCP challenges industry from the demand side to develop innovative solutions to cover public sector needs and it provides a first customer reference that enables companies to create competitive advantage on the market.

To run and successfully impact the market, TIQUE includes a complementary team: three public administrations defining the needs and validating the solutions (Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Azienda Sanitaria Locale Avellino, and Region Västerbotten), two Catalan public agencies leading the co-designing with all stakeholders, the interoperability and the evaluation framework (TIC Salut and AQuAS), a technological partner from Israel (Assuta Medical Centers) and two SMEs supporting the coordination and the implementation of the PCP instrument (JERA Consulting and VALDE Innova). The lead procurer and the coordinator of the project is Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, already experienced in running EU funded projects of join procurement of innovative solutions.

TIQUE has a planned duration of 60 months, starting from 1st March 2021.

For further information please contact:

Alicia Feliciano

Press Officer

info@tiquepcp.eu