Key People
Hein Raat (EMC)
Hein Raat, MD, PhD, MBA is professor at Erasmus Medical Centre, and expert in E-health applications in community care for high risk groups and with regard to patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) to include the patient perspective in health care innovations. He develops, implements, and evaluates how information technology (E-health) empowers patients and (informal) caregivers. He studies the impact of social factors including migrant status and poverty on health. He was project leader of the EU-funded Urban Health Centre 2.0; and he is project leader of the EU-funded SEFAC. He is actively engaged in exchanges between research, policy, and practice. He authored more than 250 peer-reviewed international scientific publications.
Others involved: Esmée Bally, Demi Cheng, Amy van Grieken, Lizhen Ye, Kyra Ubaghs
Oscar Mayora (FBK)
After his PhD in Electronic Engineering and Informatics at DIBE, University of Genoa, he joined the Advance Interactive Systems Laboratory at VTT Electronics in Oulu (Finland, as an ERCIM Visiting Research Fellow. In 2001 he was appointed Associate Professor and head of the Graduate Program in Computer Science at Tecnológico de Monterrey (Mexico). From 2004 – 2016 he was head of the Ubihealth area at Create-Net (Italy). Dr. Mayora was former president of ACM SIG-CHI for Mexico and is founder of the International Pervasive Health Conference. He has published over 150 scientific papers and has extensively participated and coordinated research and innovation projects in the field of pervasive health technologies. Currently, Dr. Mayora is head of the Digital Health Lab at FBK Health and Wellbeing Center; Scientific Coordinator of the EIP-AHA Trentino Reference Site; responsible for the projects coordination of TrentinoSalute4.0 initiative and adjunct professor at University of Trento and FH-Burgenland (Austria).
Others involved: Sara Testa, Claudio Eccher, Michele Marchesoni
Athanasios Koumparos (VI)
Mr. Athanasios Koumparos (M) holds a degree in Computer Systems Engineering from TEI Piraeus, a Master’s Degree in Microelectronics & Communications from Northumbria University. He worked as commissioning engineer at CERN and soon after joined Vodafone Innovus at 2008. Since then, he held various positions including software design and development, team leader, solution architecting and currently holds the position of research engineer. He is actively involved in Horizon research programmes including Track & Know (2018 -2020) and the ongoing projects ValueCare, Trustonomy and Logginov 5G.
Currently is a PhD student at University of Piraeus department of Informatics; his research interests include driving behaviour, medical data processing, machine learning and big data analytics.
Others involved: George Koutalieris, Antonis Balogiannis, Panos Livanos
Rachael Dix (Las Naves)
Degree in Business Studies from the University of Limerick, Ireland and currently studying a Master’s degree in Project Management at the Polytechnical University of Valencia. More than 14 years’ experience in scientific and medical research in the areas of healthy and active aging, childhood obesity, hypertension, social isolation, etc. Currently R+D+I technician and local pilot coordinator of the Valencia pilot of ValueCare at Las Naves, Valencia, Spain.
Others involved: Elena Rocher, Julian Torralba, María José Perales
Andrew Darley (UCD)
Dr Andrew Darley is the Postdoctoral Researcher on the ValueCare Project Team in Ireland at the UCD School of Medicine. Dr Darley received a BA (Mod.) in Psychology and English Literature (Trinity College Dublin), a MSc in Applied Social Research (Trinity College Dublin) and a PhD in Health Systems (University College Dublin). His research interests include a wide range of topics in the field of health psychology including eHealth, psychosocial well-being, person-centred care and family caregiving. Dr Darley has several years of experience of designing, implementing and evaluating eHealth technology in clinical settings, both nationally and internationally.
Others involved: Áine Carroll, Aveen Murray
Maite Ferrando (KVC)
Maite Ferrando (PhD) is CEO of Senior Europa SL (Kveloce I+D+i) a company with over 20 years of experience leading the management and evaluation of projects funded by EU-funded programs (FP6, FP7, H2020, CIP, EIT health, AMIF to mention some) but also business-oriented services, providing support to several regional or international business ecosystems linked with digital health and social innovation. Maite Ferrando is Honours Degree Bachelor and PhD in Psychology (1998-2008) by the University of Valencia (2008), Master Degree in Health & Clinical Psychology (Universidad Complutense de Madrid), with a strong scientific background on quantitative and qualitative methods and relevant papers published in acknowledged academic journals. She has been external researcher or advisor expert in different public and private national and international research institutions (EIPAHA, SEAS, EchAlliance) and granted for research stays at the University of Oslo, Stoony Brook University in New York, the University of Washington and the University of Berkeley, California. She has chaired, co-chaired and been invited to many international conferences and events on technical and scientific topics around innovation and human wellbeing research. |
She has been more than 15 years of experience in project management and quality assurance for research and innovation projects mostly funded by the European Commission and other public national and international funded bodies which requires high standards for quality and risk management procedures. Since 2010, she is European Commission External Evaluator, Rapporteur and Reviewer for competitive funded programmes, including H2020 calls related with technology, health and other transversal research and innovation topics with high social and human impact.
Others involved:
Mireia Ferri, Sandra Vilaplana Llin, Rebeca Lucas, Alba Matamoros
Karolina Mackiewicz (ECHAlliance)
Karolina Mackiewicz, International Projects Director at ECHAlliance
Karolina Mackiewicz (MA Political Sciences, MA Futures Studies) has over 12 years of professional experience in international projects in the area of health and wellbeing.
She worked for the WHO European Healthy Cities network, leading the WHO Collaborating Centre for Healthy Cities and Urban Health in the Baltic Sea Region, and the Development Manager at MyData Global – an international non-for-profit advocating for a human-centric approach to personal data. When it comes to digital health, she is especially interested in how technology and data can support the sustainable health systems of tomorrow, health literacy and socio-economic determinants of health.
Karolina has developed and led numerous international projects and cooperated with the EC, OECD, World Bank and other key regional and national stakeholders. Her professional mission is to bring bridges between the different sectors for a more just and sustainable future.
Others involved:
Tamara Alhambra-Borrás (UVEG)
Tamara Alhambra-Borrás is a researcher at Polibienestar Research Institute – University of Valencia (Spain). Tamara Alhambra-Borrás has a PhD in Psychology. She also has a Master Degree in Research and Interventions in Psychopathology and Health (2012) and a Master Degree in General Health Psychology (2014), both by the Universitat de València. She has large expertise in participating in European projects as researcher and also as project manager in a public research institute of the University of Valencia. Moreover, she has experience working abroad in health-related projects, concretely in India and South Africa.
Others involved: Angeles Sanchis, Jorge Garces, Mirian Fernández
Nhu Tram (AGE)
Nhu Tram has been working for AGE Platform Europe since 2016 as a project officer. The EU-funded projects she has been working on and managed daily, addressed topics such as age-friendly environments, long-term care, innovative ICT supporting independence of older adults and active and healthy ageing, such as Homes4Life, ATHLOS, AFE-Innovnet, InAdvance. While working on these projects, she has gained experience in collaborating with different stakeholders, organizing workshops, webinars, and conferences, and ensuring an optimal awareness raising of the topics of the projects she managed. Working on these projects enabled her to grasp the importance of mainstreaming ageing in all policy matters but also the key aspect of collaboration between different stakeholders. In ValueCare, AGE is contributing to WP2, 4, 5, 6 and 8.
Others involved: Marine Luc, Ilenia Gheno
Dr. Oscar Zanutto (ISRAA)
Dr. Oscar Zanutto is a psychologist of work and organizations. He has been working in ISRAA since 2000, nowadays coordinating FABER www.fabbricaeuropa.eu an Innovation Hub dedicated to EU Projects on social innovation in older field. Senior Project Manager in several European Projects related to ageing, ICT innovation in care and in Italian national projects funded by the Italian Government.. His skills are devoted to networking, consortium building and project management with a focus on the design of innovative care services for older people.. He also works as consultant in social innovation projects for care provider organizations in the adoption of ICT solutions into new business care models.Trainer in University Masters programmes for psychologists managed by Padua University. He is author of “La leadership in RSA”, and “La Bussiness Intelligence in RSA” Maggioli Editore (2013), SEFAC JOURNEY edited by “Hein Raat, Stefania Macchione, Oscar Zanutto (2021). Speaker in several events dedicated to longevity topics. Since 2019, June Aging2.0 Network Treviso’s Chapter Ambassador.
Others involved: Stefania Macchione, Davide Tuis, Sara Ceron, Giorgia Coldebella, Marta Mattarucco
Nancy Karanasiou (Vidavo)
Nancy Karanasiou (F), is a Computer Scientist whose main development area is digital health both at application level as well as back bone systems. As Chief Technology Officer of Vidavo she oversees the architecture, design and implementation of complex IT solutions and leads the product and solution development activities. She has over 10 years of technical experience in the Digital Health industry, participating in a number of research ICT projects and she has contributed towards authoring numerous papers and chapter books.
Others involved: Alexis Fourlis, Markella Psymarnou
Vanja Vasiljev (Medri)
Vanja Vasiljev, M.Sc., PhD, MPH works as an associate professor at Department of Social Medicine and Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Rijeka, Croatia. She is an expert in implementation (development, implementation and evaluation) of interventions for older people in the community regarding the frailty, loneliness, prevention of falls and adherence to medicines. She was working on scientific projects regarding experimental microbiology and immunology and national scientific projects (EUROBioAct, EH-UH-2). From 2014. she is actively involved in the European projects regarding public health (IPA-CLOUD, ENRETE, UHCE 2.0 and SEFAC). Her teaching research interests are devoted to public health. In VALUECARE project assoc. prof. Vasiljev leads WP4.
Others involved: Prof. Tomislav Rukavina, Assist. Prof. Lovorka Bilajac, Assist. Prof. Sven Maričić, Denis Juraga, PhD student, Mihaela Marinović Glavić, PhD student
Darren Curran (IFIC)
In October 2019, Darren joined the International Foundation for Integrated Care as the Marketing and Events Assistant and in October 2020 Darren became the Digital Communications Officer. Darren is responsible for creating digital content, managing the website, and social media accounts. Darren leads the communication on the EU funded project ValueCare and marketing officer for IFIC Ireland.
Darren has a bachelor’s degree in TV, Radio, and New Media Broadcasting from the Institute of Technology Tralee. Darren has a combination of skills and experience with content creation which helps him bring a new and creative dynamic to the IFIC team.
Others involved: Orla Snook O' Carroll, Edelweiss Aldasoro, Pilar Gangas Peiró, Alejandro Gil Salmerón