VAPrevention – Project funded by FCT
FCT funded the project “VAPrevention - Randomised controlled trial and economic evaluation of a person-centred digital intervention to prevent diabetes in high-risk adults” through a 2022 I&D project competition from FCT.
The PI is Mara Guerreiro da Egas Moniz – Cooperativa de Ensino Superior, CRL and this project have the participations of CHRC researchers such as Marta Moreira Marques (NMS), Joana Alves (ENSP), Julian Perelman (ENSP), Ana Rodrigues (NMS) along with Lúcia Domingues e Nélia Gouveia from NOVA Cru/NMS. The participation of CHRC researchers in this project is mainly in the WP related to the clinical trial that will be coordinated by Marta Moreira Marques, designated as “Hybrid trial: recruitment and randomisation; evaluation of effectiveness, implementation and safety; qualitative evaluation of the webapp implementation; economic evaluation.”
It’s well known there’s a sharp increased risk of developing type 2 DIABETES (T2D) globally and Portugal it’s one of the countries in Europe with the highest risk of contracting the disease, having an impact on the health and well-being of the general population and health systems. It’s crucial to create more easily implementable innovative tools, which focus on diet and physical exercise, in order to counteract this growing trend of the 21st century regarding to T2D. Through this, the project “VA Prevention - Randomised controlled trial and economic evaluation of a person-centred digital intervention to prevent diabetes in high-risk adults” was born.
VAPrevention will focus on the challenge of preventing T2D and work on 3 critical knowledge gaps within this area of expertise:
. To develop a a digital intervention for diabetes prevention using automated virtual health, from previous consortium work (VASelfCare, Train4Health);
. Evaluating its effectiveness and implementation, via a clinical study with a well-powered hybrid effectiveness-implementation and qualitative research, drawing on experience in prior projects (e.g. NoHoW, SEURO);
. Evaluating cost-effectiveness resorting to economic evaluation skills in preventive interventions (e.g. SILNE-R project) .
The main expected results of VAPrevention are a prototype of TRL7 web application, an intervention evaluation report and an exploration and a sustainability roadmap. Thus, it’s expected that the implementation will bring a positive economic impact, reducing the clinical burden associated with T2D, resulting in the effectiveness of prevention. An impact is also expected in the technological sector, reducing the distance between academia and business, such as the exploration and sustainability roadmap and contact with the health technology community.