Deadline: 15-Mar-23
The European Commission (EC) is seeking proposals for its Digital health technologies for the prevention and personalised management of mental disorders and their long-term health consequences.
Scope
Mental health disorders represent an area of severe unmet public health need. This has been further negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, with a substantial increase in the number and severity of people affected for example by anxiety and depression, which places substantial pressures on already strained mental health care systems. People with mental disorders have a reduced life expectancy compared to the general population, and this is linked to a greater risk of developing a range of chronic physical conditions. The long-standing separation of psychiatry from other branches of medicine and the lack of specific training on this issue further contribute to the poor attention dedicated to management of comorbidities of mental health disorders.
Funding Information
The check will normally be done for the coordinator if the requested grant amount is equal to or greater than EUR 500 000, except for:
- public bodies (entities established as a public body under national law, including local, regional or national authorities) or international organisations; and
- cases where the individual requested grant amount is not more than EUR 60 000 (lowvalue grant).
Expected Outcomes
R&I actions (projects) to be supported under this topic must contribute to all of the following outcomes:
- Robust evidence on the feasibility, acceptability, adherence, and personal satisfaction with digital health technologies (DHT) in people with mental disorders. People with mental disorders and their families/caregivers should be included in evidence generation. This includes pathways to maximise motivation and engagement with DHT of all relevant end-users and healthcare actors. This includes patient-centric selection of potential application features, measurement technologies and digital endpoints. Proper attention should be given to the issues of vulnerability, stigma and difficulties related to limited digital/eHealth literacy. Consideration should be given to ethical, cultural, gender and age-specific (e.g. adolescents’) needs and preferences to ensure continued use of the DHT.
- A flexible, interoperable, and reusable digital platform that can be used across numerous conditions and scenarios (various mental disorders, comorbidities, long-term health consequences and other disease areas) to collect, analyse and integrate diverse multimodal clinical and patient data, including patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) and patient reported experience measures (PREMs), with an emphasis on those generated by DHT. Variability across countries should be addressed, as digital infrastructures and the availability of digital tools may differ. Mapping of the specific links between digital infrastructures and types of digital health technology (e.g. concepts, data types, standards, technological approaches) should be included. Consideration must be given to ethical, social, and legal aspects and to the FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable) principles.
- Effective and agreed guidelines for the development and implementation of DHT in clinical research and as a part of everyday health and care, enabling the development of more patient-centric treatments, optimised health and care interventions and better disease prevention. Evidence from quantitative studies on potential favourable/unfavourable effects of the technologies on care, and on their impact on changing clinical research and clinical trials should be included. Relevant organisational and work processes, policy and regulatory aspects should be addressed to foster the sustained integration of DHT in real world practice.
- Robust knowledge for better understanding of mental disorders, their change over time and how all this relates to clinical outcomes including the remission, relapse, and recurrence of the conditions, long-term health conditions and mortality and/or surrogate outcome measures when relevant. Socioeconomic outcomes and family/caregiver burden should be addressed. Better insights into other aspects like patient adherence to therapy and adverse drug reactions should be gained.
- A robust body of data to enable the development of digital tools that optimise the engagement of people with mental disorders, caregivers and other relevant actors (healthcare professionals, social workers etc.) adapted to the needs of the patient population and age-specific needs, tackling the issues of stigma, vulnerability, lack of treatment seeking and overall poor adherence to treatment (including lifestyle related). Consideration should be given to providing intuitive equipment and user interfaces and easy troubleshooting.
- Enhanced and more reliable tools and methods (e.g. analytical tools and algorithms) able to provide (near) real time feedback on the DHT, including on the usability, efficacy/effectiveness, and long-term safety. Together, these enable healthcare professionals and providers to make more inclusive and efficient patient-centred decisions in collaboration with the people with mental disorders and their families.
- Robust evidence of how DHT may influence the treatment or behaviour of people with mental disorders. The inclusion of schools/social workers/psychologists in evidence generation should be considered where relevant.
Eligibility Criteria
To be eligible for funding, applicants must be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
- the Member States of the European Union, including their outermost regions;
- the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) linked to the Member States;
-
eligible non-EU countries:
- countries associated to Horizon Europe;
- low- and middle-income countries.
For more information, visit European Commission.