Feasibility of a wireless health monitoring system for prevention and health assessment of elderly people

The work presented in this paper comprises the methodology and results of a pilot study on the feasibility of a wireless health monitoring system designed under main EU challenges for the promotion of healthy and active ageing. The system is focused on health assessment, prevention and lifestyle promotion of elderly people. Over a hundred participants including elderly users and caregivers tested the system in four pilot sites across Europe. Tests covered several scenarios in senior centers and real home environments, including performance and usability assessment. Results indicated strong satisfactoriness on usability, usefulness and user friendliness, and the acceptable level of reliability obtained supports future investigation on the same direction for further improvement and transfer of conclusions to the real world in the healthcare delivery.

Smart and sustainable public transport systems through improving level and quality of service

Buses are considered a slow, low comfort and low reliability transport system, thus its negative and por image. In the framework of the 3iBS project (2012), several examples of innovative and/or effective solutions regarding the Level of Service (LoS) were analysed aiming to provide operators, practitioners and policy makers with a set of Good Practice Guidelines to strengthen the competitiveness of the bus in the urban environment. The identification of the key indicators regarding vehicles, infrastructure and operation was possible through the analysis of a set of case studies -among which Barcelona (Spain), Cagliari (Italy), London (United Kingdom), Paris and Nantes (France). A cross comparison between the case studies was carried out for contrasting the level of achievement of the different criteria considered. The information provided on Regulatory, Financial and Technical issues allows the identification of a number of specific factors influencing the implementation of a high quality transport scheme, and set the basis for the elaboration of a set of Guidelines for the implementation of an intelligent, innovative and integrated bus system, including the main barriers to be tackled.