Digital Lifelong Prevention – DARE

Funder: Project funded under the National Complementary Plan to the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), - Call for tender No. 931 of 06/06/2022 of Italian Ministry for University and Research funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU

Award Number: Project code PNC0000002, Concession Decree No. 1985 of 09/12/2022 adopted by the Italian Ministry of Health, CUP B53C22006240001, Project title “Digital Life-Long Prevention” (DARE) 

Start date: 15/12/2022

End date: 14/12/2026

Total NRRP funding for the whole project: € 124.000.000

Total NRRP funding for Unipr: € 5.000.000

Objectives

As our population ages and healthcare costs continue to rise, it’s becoming increasingly important to find ways to keep people healthy and prevent illness. Digital prevention has the potential to enhance the speed and precision of key public health tasks such as forecasting, investigation, early detection, and response for both acute and chronic/complex diseases, as well as for health-related conditions throughout the lifespan.

DARE (DigitAl lifelong pRevEntion) is a comprehensive initiative that aims to establish and cultivate a connected and distributed knowledge community focused on digital preventive healthcare, through research, innovation, and the participation of stakeholders. The initiative will address the issue from multiple perspectives, including technical, ethical-legal, and organizational aspects, to generate, gather, and systematize the multidisciplinary knowledge and solutions necessary to affirm Italy as a leading country in digital prevention.

DARE addresses the pressing need to transform the healthcare culture by shifting the focus from disease treatment to lifelong prevention. With an unprecedented quantity and quality of health and health-related data DARE can size an unparalleled opportunity to personalize care pathways while maintaining the sustainability of the public healthcare system.

To capitalize on this remarkable opportunity, the project objectives are:

• integrate data collections and reinforce data governance capabilities
• develop and validate advanced analysis tools for complex phenomena and scenario prediction
• support the development of HPC tools for healthcare planning and prevention scenarios
• promote interoperability
• reinforce knowledge-sharing and Evidence-based prevention
• support the National Health System in the evaluation and policies, dealing with all the levels of prevention

Activities

The initiative will be implemented through the hub-and-spoke model, focusing on the following themes:

• Spoke 1 – “Enabling Factors and Technologies for a Lifelong Digital Prevention” focuses on methods and acts as a Solution Provider for other Spokes
• Spoke 2 – “Community-based Digital Primary Prevention” focuses on Digital Health applications for the primary prevention on the general population, selected communities and target groups
• Spoke 3 – “Digitally enabled Secondary and Tertiary Prevention” focuses on Digital Health applications for early diagnosis and targeting patients’ health needs

To establish a stable network for preventive digital health, DARE involves a wide range of partners and stakeholders, including universities, research centres, research hospitals, local health authorities, foundations, and private companies.

UNIPR is involved in the following Spokes as affiliated entity, supporting the initiative in the following activities:

• Spoke 1
  • Helping in the deployment of the technological, organisational, and legal aspects
  • Gathering evidence synthesis, consolidation of results and guidelines
• Spoke 3
  • Supporting the set-up of the ecosystem
  • Conceiving large-scale piloting and solutions implementation
  • Assisting the scale up, guidelines production, and clinical validation

• Department of Medicine and Surgery
• Department of Engineering and Architecture
• Department of Law, Politics and International Studies

• Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna
• Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro
• Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
• Libera Università degli Studi di Enna “Kore”
• Università degli Studi di Padova
• Università degli Studi di Palermo
• Università degli Studi di Parma
• University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Italy S.r.l.
• Università degli Studi di Roma "Tor Vergata"
• Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare
• Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli IRCCS
• Istituto Tumori “Giovanni Paolo II” IRCCS
• Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Bologna Policlinico Sant’Orsola IRCCS
• Azienda Ospedale-Università Padova
• Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria Policlinico “G.Rodolico – San Marco”
• Agenzia Regionale per la Protezione dell'Ambiente - Sicilia
• Azienda Sanitaria Locale di Bari
• Azienda Sanitaria Locale Roma
• Azienda USL della Romagna
• Policlinico Tor Vergata
• Fondazione GIMBE
• Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli IRCCS
• BI-REX - Big Data Innovation & Research
• Exprivia S.p.A.
• Engineering Ingegneria Informatica S.p.A.
• Leithà S.r.l.
• Maria Cecilia Hospital S.p.A.

DARE’s expected results include the creation of research environments for digital preventive health and the provision of evidence-based recommendations to influence public health policies and healthcare management, to increase citizens’ health and society.

DARE will optimize healthcare services, increase risk awareness, and promote healthier lifestyles. This will improve well-being, reduce hospitalization, and save on healthcare costs. DARE will also impact medical and general public attitude towards public health, bringing a shift from disease treatment to lifelong prevention and a community-based approach, promoting trust in technology for preventive health.

DARE Foundation - Digital Lifelong Prevention: Overview | LinkedIn