Duration: 2021 - 2023

Geographical area: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Russian Federation, Sweden.

Summary: The project “The Art of Staying Healthy” aims to develop collaboration between the arts and health sectors and to pilot arts interventions on the health and well-being of people and communities in the Northern Dimension (ND) area.

The project “The Art of Staying Healthy” was inspired by the recent WHO report which highlighted the important role of the arts sector in promoting good health, preventing mental and physical health challenges and supporting the treatment of acute and chronic conditions. It demonstrated that engaging in arts and cultural activities can reduce loneliness and isolation, increase social cohesion, strengthen individual and group identity and help to address social inequalities.

The project shall contribute to further translating evidence on the health benefits of the arts into relevant policy documents, developing integrative policies that engage with different sectors, and promoting promising practices across the sectors within the ND region.

The Open Call for project proposals was launched on 2 June and applications must be submitted by 19 July 2021.

The “Art of Staying Healthy” is a joint project between the Northern Dimension Partnership in Public Health and Social Well-being (NDPHS), Northern Dimension Partnership on Culture (NDPC), and the EU National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC).

Find out more here. 

Focus: Primary health care

Duration: March 2010 – December 2012

Geographical area: Belarus, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Sweden 

Summary: Primary Health Care (PHC) is the level of care nearest to the community. It coordinates care with other community stakeholders and manages interfaces with other health services and thus also helps to control the costs of the public health systems. Hence PHC is an efficient tool for health promotion & disease prevention and contributes to increasing the attractiveness of regions. While the importance of PHC is without controversy, the equitable availability of high quality PHC personnel and resources is a big challenge for all BSR Countries. It tackles three core areas: access to PHC, financial resources for PHC, and professional development of PHC staff. The project produced new incentive payment scheme and operational system of evidence-based quality indicators, developed set of proven measures to recruit and retain doctors and other health professionals in less attractive areas. Furthermore the project prepared a strategy on professional development of PHC in the BSR, prepared recommendations for avoiding brain drain within and between countries, made available evidence-based PHC practices for counteracting communicable diseases. The project also prepared a model solution for incorporating PHC in regional development plans and recommendations conclusions on promoting equal distribution of PHC.

Focus: Alcohol use; Substance use

Duration: October 2012 – November 2013

Geographical area: Iceland, Finland, Lithuania, Russia, Sweden

Summary: This project mapped out and subsequently performed a situation analysis of the alcohol and drug situation among youth and the structures and activities of local prevention work. The project assessed the needs of the participating communities, created foundation for subsequent efforts to measure and increase the communities’ readiness for the implementation of project activities and provided basis for the mobilisation of local actors and created cross-border network of public health specialists, practitioners and policy-makers.

Focus: eHealth

Duration: January 2010 – December 2012

Geographical area: Denmark, Finland, Germany, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden

Summary: Strengthening social capacities for the utilisation of eHealth technologies in the framework of the ageing population.

The social capacity, knowledge and acceptance to utilise eHealth technologies of citizens and medical professionals is a basic condition for the implementation and further generation of innovative technologies for the health sector. However the absorption of new knowledge and acceptance to use eHealth technologies is varying remarkably among citizens and medical professionals and needs to be strengthened in all partner regions.

eHealth technologies allow a mutually beneficial collaboration and involvement of patients and medical professionals in prevention and treatment. eHealth technologies empower patients to take more responsibility for their own health and quality of life and lead to better cost-efficiency in the health sector. A consequence of ageing population is more citizens with chronic diseases especially among elderly in all partner regions. Thus prevention and treatment of chronic diseases is an important market and implementation area for innovative eHealth technologies.

Although basic eHealth technology is widely available on the market the project partners consider a deployment problem in the health care sector. A main barrier is a lack of social capacity and acceptance by citizens and medical professionals to utilise eHealth technology. Thus the overall aim of the project is that citizens with chronic diseases and medical professionals in the partner regions have the capacity and knowledge as well as the acceptance to use eHealth technologies in prevention and treatment by the year 2012. The project analyses the impact of the ageing population on the health care systems and identifies and shares strategies in raising the capacity to utilise eHealth in prevention and treatment of chronic diseases. The findings were widely disseminated in a Transnational Discussion Round with stakeholders from policy, health sector and industry from the BSR.

The project had three pilot implementations with following main outputs: A comprehensive self-monitoring system for chronic heart failure patients (WP4), Education content for better utilisation of eHealth by medical professionals and citizens (WP5) and a multi-lingual personal health portal enabling citizens with chronic diseases to document electronically their health data supporting their mobility abroad (WP6). All developed standardised solutions were transferred and offered to health care providers and the general public in the BSR through a network of distributors and multipliers.

Focus: eHealth; Primary health care

Duration: January 2012 – March 2014

Geographical area: Belarus, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden

Summary: Counteracting braindrain and professional isolation of health professionals in remote primary health care through tele-consultation and tele-mentoring to strengthen social conditions in remote BSR.

The Baltic Sea Region is confronted with an ageing population, which leads to a rising demand for primary health care services. Moreover, an increasing lack of health workers and medical doctors challenges the maintenance of primary health care services within the region. Above all the brain drain of health professionals is affecting particularly remote areas in the whole BSR. There is evidence that professional isolation is a leading cause for this brain drain. A better deployment of tele-consultation and tele-mentoring has strong potential to reduce professional isolation and to provide opportunities for professional networking, continuing medical education and career development for younger and experienced doctors and health workers in remote areas.

The project partners analyze existing barriers for large scale deployment of teleconsultation and tele-mentoring such as technology acceptance, work flows, daily routines or legal uncertainties. The elaborate on strategic opportunities for better use of such tele-health to overcome brain drain of health care professionals in remote primary care. They implement jointly developed tele-consultation and tele-mentoring solutions between health workers, general practitioners and medical specialists in pilot sites, preparing the large scale implementation.

The partnership involves health workers, medical doctors associations, and hospitals, planning and financing authorities, regional development administrations, and eHealth research organisations. Thus, the consortium represents the relevant sectors in the implementing regions for successful goal achievement.

Roadmap to improve the health and well-being of the ageing population in the Baltic Sea Region.

Geographical area: Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Sweden.

Duration: 2018 - 2022

Summary: Increased life expectancy in the Baltic Sea Region is in general a positive trend. However, healthcare and social systems are not well-prepared to provide for an ageing population. The AgeFLAG project and its partners aim to develop a common understanding on which policy interventions are most needed.

AgeFLAG is the flagship under preparation that aims to strengthen multi-sectoral actions for a life-course approach at multiple levels and sectors to prevent disease, promote health, maintain intrinsic capacity and functional ability of individuals to improve healthy ageing and enable well-being in the older age. 

Find out more on the AgeFLAG website.

Focus: HIV prevention

Duration: September 2013 – August 2015

Geographical area: Finland, Latvia, Poland, Russia.

Summary: The aim of the project was to address the area of HIV prevention among youth at high risk of getting HIV and associated infections. Project activities included the assessment of needs of young people at risk in prevention programs, mapping best practices, training professionals, disseminating best practices and development of guide.

This action explicitly addressed the area of HIV prevention among youth at risk of getting HIV and AI in mapping best practices, disseminating them, and training professionals in Northwest Russia. Workshops, research, training and a publication were implemented in the Northern Dimension area, including the Northwestern Federal District of the Russian Federation. In carrying out these activities, the action supported the NDPHS in facilitating cooperation between the EU and other Northern Dimension partners.

The main results included but are not limited to: 1)Needs of children and young people at high risk of getting HIV and AI in Northwest Russia and other countries of Northern Dimension countries were mapped out; 2) Best practices on HIV prevention among children and young at high risk of getting HIV and AI, which could be spread in the region, were identified; 3) Professionals working with children and young people at high risk of getting HIV and AI were trained in prevention of HIV and AI; 4) Best practices on HIV and AI prevention among children and young people at high risk of getting HIV and AI were piloted in Northwest Russia; 5) Guidelines for decision-makers and stakeholders working with children and young people at high risk of getting HIV and AI on the best practices of prevention in these groups were developed.

Focus: Lifestyle related diseases

Duration: October 2017 - September 2020

Geographical area: Denmark, Estonia Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland.

Summary:

The main project aims:
1. To develop and test a new approach which helps Public Health Authorities (PHA) in prevention intervention planning. It will enable the PHAs to better tailor the interventions to the specific needs of the user group by applying participatory and co-creation methods in the planning procedure.

2. To involve eHealth technologies in the planning and implementation of the intervention in order to foster the joint development and co-design process. eHealth tools also support the user in the prevention intervention.

3. To initiate cooperation between PHAs and small and medium-sized enterprises through networking and matchmaking events. 

Visit BaltCityPrevention for more.

Focus: Antibiotic resistance

Duration: October 2014 – September 2017

Geographical area: Finland, Germany, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden 

Summary: The goal of the project was to provide health-care professionals, authorities and policy makers with valuable information on the penetration of antibiotic resistance in society and identified specific resistance determinants among the normal flora of healthy individuals.

The primary aim of the NoDARS project was to gain new knowledge regarding resistance levels in uncomplicated urinary tract infections (UTI) that normally are not subjected to microbiological analysis; to look for specific resistance determinants in the normal flora of healthy individuals and use these results to assess and improve existing guidelines for antibiotic treatment of uncomplicated UTIs as well as to evaluate existing AMR-strategies in the countries that participated in the study. Altogether the results of the study will be informing the empirical treatment of common urinary tract infections. It also brought important information on the penetration of resistance in the population. Different AMR-strategies applied in the participating countries were evaluated in the context of evidence informed policy making.

The project provided new useful information on the levels of antibiotic resistance in the countries participating in the project (Finland, Germany, Latvia, Poland, Russia, Sweden). NoDARS provided large and unique collections of E.coli isolates from uncomplicated UTIs that gives new insight into the resistance in one of the most under-sampled but at the same time common infections worldwide. The study shows that resistance patterns vary significantly among the partner countries. The NoDARS data also represents populations that are not normally included in surveillance of AMR, which contributes to raising the impact and interest in these groups. A major strength of the NoDARS project was the involvement of countries with different antimicrobial resistance situations, health care system organization and antimicrobial stewardship policies. Especially the perspective of Russia is important and often lacking in similar studies.

Visit NoDARS for more.