Firstly, though the scope is broad, it is not so very broad. Our focus is on having a solution that enables widespread integration among all of the people who are caring for the patient, as well as the patient and their family. We have identified the services needed by the procurers, so we are expecting the bidders to focus on how to create a virtual care centre that provides these services.

Secondly, you can create a consortium in order to team up with other companies so that you can complement each other. We are not expecting one company all by itself to meet all of TIQUE’s requirements. This is why we offer a matchmaking platform. You have the opportunity to join up with other companies so that together you can present a total solution.

When we get to the tender, we will have a much more detailed description of the systems that currently exist at each procurer’s level, so that you can then relate to those specific systems as well as on their gaps and the particular needs they have. These things will be detailed in the tender document to make it easier for all of the bidders to then address specifically the needs of the procurers.
We are looking for an adaptable solution. That is what we think the market is looking for, that we develop solutions that are flexible and adaptable to different contexts.

We are procuring R&D services, and that means that if you have prior solutions whose development was funded by other public R&D programmes, these solutions should not be funded by TIQUE. But you can improve existing solutions that have been funded by different public funds, and integrate this research into TIQUE’s solution.

This is not mandatory. We expect consortia of organisations that have strong R&D programmes, so they should be able to address the use cases and functional requirements that we are including in the call for tenders. Nonetheless, there is no specific category of organisations that can exclusively bid in TIQUE’s call for tenders, as long as they can address the challenge and run the solutions in the healthcare facilities of the procurers.

TIQUE’s three procurers are not all implementing the same care pathways. Although there is a very great commonality among them, they each have a different context and they each have systems in place that need to be integrated with.
One of the reasons we are talking about consortia is that creating/joining a consortium will enable you to work with other partners and meet the diversities of the procurers. We are assuming that no one single supplier would be able to this by themselves, so it would be advantageous for the suppliers to find the appropriate partners to meet the needs that we have defined.

This question can be answered best from each of our procurer’s point of view.
Region Västerbotten: In the Swedish healthcare system we have specialist care and primary care, and they are both part of the same organisation. They share the same ICT system and they share data between them. But also involved in the care of patients are Home Care or Social Care services, and in Sweden that is carried out by the municipalities. And they don’t share the same ICT system, so here we have a gap that we need to address. Those are the main entities that are involved in the care of heart failure patients.

Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau: In Catalunya and in particular at Sant Pau, we will pilot with the tertiary hospital (which is Sant Pau) and also with the primary care centres. In our reference area we have a multi-provider healthcare system that includes different organisations. We all have a common background of medical records and other tools, but TIQUE will have to integrate with different organisations that have different ICT systems, although the core of electronic health records will be shared by all.
We are also interested in integrating nursing homes in our pilots and not all of them are part of the healthcare system in Catalunya. Additionally, we would like to include social care services (which do not share the same ICT systems either), although this on a secondary level of priority.

ASL Avellino: Avellino is a local health agency. The unit that is working on this PCP is the Home Care Unit. Our idea is very similar to Sant Pau’s approach in that we would like to integrate different levels of care. Our advantage is that the local health agency in Avellino includes both primary care and specialised care, including several hospitals. To this project we have also connected an additional hospital of national relevance that has extensive experience in cardiovascular interventions. Our idea is to connect these different levels of care. From the technical point of view, we will provide specific interoperability requirements to facilitate integration.

That is up to the proposals to be presented. What is important for us is that this virtual care centre exists and is able to offer the required services that we will define in our tender documents, and that it is also able to give support to the three locations. This means that the support services of this virtual care centre should be able to be carried out in Swedish, Italian, Spanish, in English and maybe in other languages, because it is a pan-European solution that we are looking for.

The answer to this question is not closed. We still have to determine it in a discussion between the procurers. We would generally like to reach as many patients as possible while balancing what is actually feasible for the procurers. It is something we will clarify in the tender documents.

We are envisaging a care team in TIQUE. The care team will be the current care team caring AHF patients. This team is multidisciplinary and includes a pharmacist, so it is this care team that will deal with the question of the appropriateness of the prescribed medication. TIQUE’s solution platform is expected to facilitate the discussion of the care team on these and other issues. The solution is also expected to help motivate patients to adhere to the medication prescribed by their care team.

The partners conforming TIQUE are working with other Horizon 2020 projects, though not on this particular question of AHF. All of us have experience with PCPs and other R&D projects, and this experience is useful in TIQUE. We have also established lines of communication with other projects that are dealing with this kind of patients.

We are for instance very much in communication with InCareHeart, which is a Swedish initiative. Though we each focus on different aspects and stages of HF and are completely independent projects, we endeavour for our initiatives to be complementary, and we hope to encourage patients who have gone through InCareHeart to then seek the support of TIQUE, as TIQUE is focused on the more advanced stages of the condition.

We are also willing to find bidders to incorporate the results of previous European research project into our competing solutions.

Yes, consortiums can bid in other projects and PCPs. What is not allowed is to be awarded twice for the same research. Research from one solution can be used to bid in another tender, just as long as that research is not the core of the new solution presented. This is very important to note.

There is a section open in our website (Matchmaking) where companies can create a profile. This profile includes a series of tags so companies can easily indicate and identify the kinds of partners they are looking for. But our job ends there. Beyond that, companies are responsible for contacting each other and taking the process further.

In principle, we try to avoid one-on-one contact, but we are open to exchanging as much information as possible with potential bidders.

All the questions we receive will be answered publicly in our website in the Q&A section. We want to ensure that every potential bidder has equal opportunities and access to the same information.

Having said that, if when we receive feedback from potential bidders during the OMC, we have some questions for them which may help us better redact our tender specifications, we may decide to establish a more direct line of communication with them. However, we will carry out this process as publicly and openly as possible.

Solutions should run in the three locations – one solution for the three locations. Phase I and Phase II will be more laboratory phases, but in Phase III suppliers will have to implement their solutions in the three locations at the same time and run them. This is also why we strongly believe building consortia will be necessary to participate in TIQUE - so suppliers can be able to meet the particularities of each region and that of their patients (who are, we must remember, mostly elderly people).

TIQUE is about holistic integrated care, so it is essential that a whole range of different signs and symptoms be monitored. AHF is a complex syndrome and its comorbities must also be taken into account if patients’ well-being is to be ensured.

The OMC is a dialogue with the industry, so we expect feedback. We have prepared a questionnaire, available here, which has been designed to gather this feedback. We encourage companies to complete this questionnaire.

It is absolutely essential that the wider network of caregivers be involved. Not just when the patient isn’t able to manage their self-care but through the whole process. Informal care is a really important part of the patient’s care because it offers them psychosocial support as they go through a difficult process.

There is no cap on the number of companies but there is a cap on the size of the budget.

In the PCP we are assessing prototypes -destined for internal use- not products. Devices therefore do not need to be certified as medical devices. On the other hand, the solution does not necessarily need to use medical devices. As long as it meets all the requirements of the tender, it’s up to the bidders to decide what solutions actually look like. Finally, the solution may contain or may not contain medical devices, but the solution itself is not a device, it needs to be a holistic solution that provides services as well as devices.