Introduction of Digi4Care Project

Digi4Care Pilot 4: Digital Solutions for Dementia & Alzheimer's Care in Post-ICU Settings

Digi4Care Pilot 4: testing digital solutions for monitoring and rehabilitating patients with dementia, Alzheimer's and cognitive disorders in long-term and post-ICU care. In this episode we look at how digital tools — from cognitive-training "cubes" to social robots — can support people with dementia and Alzheimer's, ease the growing strain on care staff, and help maintain or improve quality of care while saving time. We discuss the feasibility study behind the pilot, the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Health Technology Assessment (HTA) used to evaluate it, the real barriers to adoption in care homes, and early findings from the Czech and Bosnian sites. GUESTS Kristina Randlova — PhD researcher, Prague University of Economics and Business, Czech Republic Prof. Gordana Gardašević — Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Banja Luka, Bosnia & Herzegovina HOST Šimon Jeseňák ABOUT DIGI4CARE Digi4Care is a transnational project (seven partners across Europe) bringing digital health solutions into primary, long-term and emergency care. The goal is to validate and introduce innovative screening, rehabilitation and telemedicine tools that support earlier detection, better patient pathways and more effective, informed decision-making in everyday healthcare. If you found this useful, subscribe for more episodes on digital health and care innovation, and tell us your thoughts in the comments. #Digi4Care #DigitalHealth #Dementia #Alzheimers #CognitiveCare #HealthTech #AgingCare

The Digital Ultrasound Revolution in Managing CVD and Diabetes Patients

Digi4Care Pilot 2: point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) for cardiovascular and diabetes patients — plus telemedicine and remote training for healthcare teams. In this episode we explore the digital ultrasound revolution in prehospital and emergency care: how handheld, smartphone-connected POCUS devices bring ultrasound imaging to the patient's bedside and into the ambulance, why cardiovascular and diabetes patients are an ideal group for these tools, and how telemedicine lets experts guide and teach colleagues remotely — even across borders. We also look at what the pilot's teaching model (online vs face-to-face training of healthcare professionals) reveals about scaling these skills across Europe. GUESTS Dr Viktória Vadas — Anaesthesiologist, Semmelweis University, Hungary Akos Tiboldi — Anaesthesiologist & Intensive Care Physician; Researcher, Ludwig Boltzmann Institute, Austria HOST Šimon Jeseňák ABOUT DIGI4CARE Digi4Care is a transnational project bringing digital health solutions into primary and emergency care across Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia. The goal is to validate and introduce innovative screening, ultrasound and telemedicine tools that support earlier detection, better patient pathways and more effective, informed decision-making in everyday healthcare. If you found this useful, subscribe for more episodes on digital health and care innovation, and tell us your thoughts in the comments. #Digi4Care #pocus  #digitalhealth  #pointofcareultrasound  #telemedicine  #emergencymedicine  #healthinnovations

Digi4Care Pilot 1: AI Fundus Camera for Diabetic Retinopathy Screening in Primary Care

Digi4Care Pilot 1: testing an AI fundus camera for diabetic retinopathy screening in primary care — plus telemedicine stations for cardiovascular and diabetes risk assessment. In this episode we explore why diabetic retinopathy — often called the "silent thief of sight" — stays undiagnosed in so many patients, how AI-assisted screening can move into GP offices and outpatient clinics, and what the first results and practical challenges (from patient pathways to connectivity) reveal about scaling these tools across Europe. GUESTS Dr Borbála Bessenyey — Medical Doctor & Pilot Coordinator in Digi4Care, Semmelweis University, Hungary Mira Ganova — CEO, Digital Health and Innovation Cluster Bulgaria HOST Šimon Jeseňák ABOUT DIGI4CARE Digi4Care is a transnational project bringing digital health solutions into primary care across Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia. The goal is to validate and introduce innovative screening and telemedicine tools that support earlier detection, better patient pathways and more effective, informed decision-making in everyday healthcare. If you found this useful, subscribe for more episodes on digital health and care innovation, and tell us your thoughts in the comments. #Digi4Care #DigitalHealth #diabeticretinopathy

Digi4Care Pilot 3: Testing Digital Technology Uptake in CVD & Diabetes Long-Term Care

Digi4Care Pilot 3: testing wearables, apps and clinical guidance to monitor patients with cardiovascular disease and diabetes between doctor visits. In this episode, cardiologist Dr Diana Iovanovici explains how continuous monitoring can close the gap between appointments — when a patient's blood pressure, heart rate or blood sugar can shift daily, even hourly. We look at the pilot's three patient groups (standard care; wearable + app; wearable + app + clinical guidance), how data flows from a smartwatch to the clinician's dashboard, and how success is measured using quality-of-life and usability questionnaires (SF-36, SUS, TAM). We also talk about adoption among older patients, data privacy, and the shift from reactive to proactive, preventive care. GUEST Dr Diana Iovanovici, PhD — Medical Resident in Cardiology, University of Oradea, Romania HOST Šimon Jeseňák ABOUT DIGI4CARE Digi4Care is a transnational project (seven partners across Europe) bringing digital health solutions into primary, long-term and emergency care. The goal is to validate and introduce innovative screening, monitoring and telemedicine tools that support earlier detection, better patient pathways and more effective, informed decision-making in everyday healthcare. If you found this useful, subscribe for more episodes on digital health and care innovation, and tell us your thoughts in the comments. #Digi4Care #DigitalHealth #Wearables #CardiovascularHealth #Telemedicine #RemoteMonitoring #HealthTech

Pilot 3: Digital Health for Post Clinical Rehabilitation

Welcome to the third episode of the Digi4Care podcast — on Pilot 3, which brings digital tools and remote monitoring into post-clinical rehabilitation for patients with cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Rehabilitation is one of the most overlooked parts of the patient journey. People leave the hospital after a heart attack or with a serious chronic diagnosis, and then — too often — they slip out of structured care. They don't start a rehabilitation programme, or they don't finish it, and the result is avoidable complications, lower quality of life, and costly readmissions. In this episode we sit down with three guests working at very different parts of that puzzle to ask: what is actually going wrong in post-discharge care, and what can digital tools realistically do about it? We talk about why rehabilitation is fragmented and inconsistent across countries, what stops patients from engaging long-term, and how clinicians can monitor people they don't see every week. Then we turn to what Pilot 3 puts on the table: smartwatches, blood-pressure monitors and smart scales for daily measurements; AI-powered tools like thermography and a Doppler device for early detection of complications; and a remote patient-monitoring system that keeps continuous communication between patients and their care teams. We walk through how the pilot is being run on the ground — recruiting between 30 and 100 patients per site, what the digital rehabilitation journey looks like day-to-day for a patient, and how clinicians actually use the data — and we discuss what success would look like: better adherence, fewer hospitalisations, improved quality of life, and real cost savings. We close with the bigger question: what would it take for digital rehabilitation to become standard practice in the region, and what changes do our guests hope to see in the next five years? WHAT YOU'LL HEAR - Why post-clinical rehabilitation is the weakest link in chronic-disease care - The biggest barriers across the Danube Region — access, motivation, data, cost - The smart devices and AI tools tested in Pilot 3 - How the pilot is being implemented and evaluated across sites - What it would take to make digital rehabilitation standard practice GUESTS Mira Ganova — CEO of the Digital Health and Innovation Cluster, Bulgaria. Builds a multidisciplinary expert community to support digital health transformation in Bulgaria and across the region. Ákos Tiboldi — Anaesthesiologist & Intensive Care Physician; Researcher, Ludwig Boltzmann Institute, Austria. Péter Vajer — General Practitioner; Family Medicine Department, Semmelweis University, Hungary. Also works with the National Cardiovascular Centre on screening, prevention and international projects. HOST Šimon Jeseňák ABOUT DIGI4CARE Digi4Care is a transnational Interreg Danube Region project supporting the adoption of digital technologies in healthcare. It brings together partners from seven countries — academia, hospitals, NGOs and policy institutions — to validate and scale innovative screening, monitoring, ultrasound and telemedicine tools that support earlier detection, better patient pathways and more effective, informed decision-making in everyday care. Beyond the technologies themselves, the project works at system level on policy, financing, regulation, data management and training, so that what works in a pilot can actually reach patients across the region. If you found this useful, subscribe — upcoming episodes go deeper into the remaining pilots with the clinicians and researchers leading them. Share your thoughts and questions in the comments. #Digi4Care #DigitalHealth #Rehabilitation #CardiovascularHealth #Diabetes #RemoteMonitoring #Wearables #HealthTech #DanubeRegion