Dublin health innovation pilot to focus on menopause

A pilot project in Dublin’s health innovation district aims to spur “the first city-wide approach to positive menopause education and support”.

Smart D8 is one of five demonstrator districts under Dublin’s smart city programme. It focuses on how technology and new approaches can be used to improve health and wellbeing in an urban population.

Four applicants were recently selected from Smart D8’s third call for pilot projects. They will share a €50,000 (US$54,761) fund to advance their existing work around menopause, physical rehabilitation, exercise for children, and sleep apnea.

Menopause and the city

The Menopause and the City project is led by Dr Louise Fitzgerald of Grafton Medical Practice and InforMD.ie.

She told Cities Today: “Undoubtedly menopause is one of the most talked about health points in the last two to three years. Yet what is not said is the health inequality in menopause care.

“Scratch below the surface and you find an array of expensive menopause products and supplements in pharmacies and health food stores, many GPs not willing to discuss menopause health due to lack of time or training, private menopause clinics limited by cost and waiting lists, and public menopause clinics only available for complex menopause patients.”

While the conversation around menopause is getting louder, there is still a lot of misinformation, Dr Fitzgerald said.

The pilot will see information materials distributed through GPs, pharmacies, public health clinics, primary care centres and local businesses and a digital platform accessed through a QR code with educational content on nutrition and exercise, emotional wellbeing, bone health and cardiovascular health.

It will also establish a network of ‘menopause champions’ who can provide support for those going through menopause, and for their relatives and friends. This includes signposting resources about menopause and providing listening spaces such as support groups.

Menopausal symptoms affect 75 percent of women and 25 percent describe them as severe.

Dr Fitzgerald said she became passionate about menopause support after witnessing her mother suffer debilitating symptoms.

She commented: “Obviously some women will need safely prescribed HRT but lifestyle choices are the cornerstone of any treatment plan.

“While the project is being launched in Dublin 8, it is scalable through the network of menopause doctors in Ireland and through widespread accessibility to the digital platform.”

Health projects

Other pilot projects selected were Brace, an app that uses exercise tracking, gamification and community support to improve recovery and mental health outcomes for those undergoing physical rehabilitation. It follows research which found that rehab programme completion rates can be as low as 50 percent.

MoveAhead aims to address clinical experience and research which suggests that children’s movement skills are deteriorating in line with increased use of screens and technology. MoveAhead is described as “the world’s first motion tracking and movement analytics platform built specifically for children” which informs games to assist with improving children’s movement skills.

The Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) Identifier project aims to reduce the wait time for a sleep apnea diagnosis, which is currently up to two years. OSA Identifier has developed an app to provide at-home data which can be reviewed by clinical specialists to inform and speed up diagnosis and treatment options.

Potential to scale

Jack Lehane, Smart D8 Ecosystem Manager, said: “We were really impressed with the quality of applications for our most recent call for pilots. With the four successful projects we are confident that they have potential to address issues and conditions that are impacting large numbers of people.

“One thing which particularly stood out was the potential many of them have to scale. At the heart of Smart D8 is cross-sectoral collaboration that allows healthcare innovation to be fast tracked and these projects will greatly enable this.”

The Smart D8 consortium is led by The Digital Hub, St James’s Hospital, Dublin City Council and Smart Dublin, together with a range of other health and research partners.

Pilot projects are based on community research that was carried out to understand local health and wellness needs.

Other initiatives have included Heart of Our City which aimed to improve awareness around and management of cardiovascular disease in the community. Civic Dollars enabled people to earn digital currency through spending time in local parks. Ways To Wellbeing helped elderly people connect with young people in their community.