Athens Medical Center: The only private Greek Health provider in the European Program Horizon 2020
Evotion: A pioneering project for hearing loss management
Athens Medical Group is the only private hospital provider in Europe, which, along with 12 university faculties, companies and several agencies from 8 countries, is participating in the European Research and Innovation Project “EVOTION”, and the only private Health provider in Greece participating in Horizon 2020.
The objective of this research project – fully funded by the European Union – is the Public Health Hearing Loss Policies decision-making based on the gathering and analysis of Big Data. This in turn will improve the prevention and treatment of hearing loss and its consequences in the life of thousands of people; it is anticipated that this project will contribute to hearing loss management methods by health specialists and organizations. Moreover, it forms part of Horizon 2020, the largest program in the history of the European Union for research, innovation and technology; the overall invested budget of the program is over 80 billion Euro for the period 2014 – 2020, in view of strengthening Europe's position as a global competitor.
For research purposes, hearing aids, noise reports, clinical, fiscal, financial and social related data, along with Big Data supporting public hearing health policies will be collected. In this way, the EVOTION platform will be created aiming at studying and identifying factors leading to total or partial hearing loss impairment, as well as at drawing the right conclusions for the development of public health policies based on this analysis.
1,750 European patients will participate in the research study, 250 of which will be patients of Athens Medical Group; it includes the use of hearing aids, clinical examinations (ENT) and observation of patients for one year. Apart from the Athens Medical Group, major companies and universities, such as Oticon A/S, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, City University of London, University College London, Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, the Institute of Public Health for the Osijek-Baranya County and the Università degli Studi di Milano (UNIMI) participate in the research study.
When announcing the composition of the scientific team, consisting of ENT doctors, audiologists, specialized nurses and administrative personnel, the head of the team of Athens Medical Center, Dr. George Gavalas, Director of the Division of Otology and Neurotology of the Athens Medical Group, stated: “We are especially content to participate in this pioneering project, aiming at effectively treating hearing loss, one of the most common chronic diseases and the 5th most common cause of disability and at improving the quality of life for thousands of people. The experience of Athens Medical Group in this sensitive field is undisputable and this was the basic criterion for our selection”.
Dr. Vassilis Apostolopoulos, CEO of Athens Medical Group, pointed out the following: «Honouring our commitment at Athens Medical Group to constantly invest in medical innovation, we are participating in EVOTION, a major European project for the advancement of medical science and the development of Public Hearing Loss Health Policies in the EU area.”
