HeartCycle: Beyond building demonstrators. A structured approach to develop, implement and validate healthcare innovations in telemonitoring

HeartCycle, running since March 2008, is an European Integrated Project aiming to provide innovations for the next generation of disease management solutions dedicated for cardiovascular disease patients. The appropriate remote management of such patients at home is seen as a promising solution to both, the delivery of innovative healthcare and the containment of future healthcare cost. Major challenges are the detection of negative health status trends in time, the appropriate decision support for professionals to react to such trends and supporting the motivation of patients to be compliant to treatment regimes and to adopt a beneficial lifestyle. In this paper an overview description of the HeartCycle process is presented which is a structured approach to develop, implement and validate healthcare innovations.