The aim of the “European network staff eXchange for integrAting precision health in the health Care sysTems (ExACT)” is to train a new generation of professionals that can contribute to the future of health and healthcare (HC), by providing high-quality, multidisciplinary knowledge in precision health. The greater personalisation of HC is a driver of innovation for research, and for the healthcare system and industry. Still policy makers, HC professionals, citizens, and private companies need to take some steps to realize its potential. In order to harness this challenging landscape, the ExACT consortium provides a cohesive framework for training staff across 7 EU Countries, 1 AC and 2 TCs. During 4 years, the staff involved will be trained on research topics not available at the home institutions thanks to 74 secondments. They will attend courses, workshops, seminars, conferences, and will participate in organizing outreach activities, thus acquiring new skills. Research topics include: Integration of Big Data and digital solutions into the HC systems; Designing and promoting innovative citizen engagement models; Education of healthcare professionals and leadership; Health Technology Assessment in precision health; Ethical-legal, social, organisational and policy issues surrounding precision health. ExACT is embedded in existing cooperation structures, such as the RISE-PRECeDI project, IC PerMed, and CSA TO-REACH. The consortium consists of 14 beneficiaries and 2 partners, of which 10 are academic institutions including Stanford University where a precision health program has been launched, and 7 non academics including 2 SMEs. The participants will produce key reports, policy recommendations, scientific publications, and information materials for citizens, thus fostering public-private interactions. In the long run, ExACT will foster the integration of precision health in the EU HC systems, thus contributing to better health for Europeans citizens.

One out of six people in the European Union has a disability, usually caused by an acute episode or a chronic disease. Providing a suitable rehabilitation is the main issue for people as they age as it helps people to live independently and enhance their Quality of Life. However, as the rehabilitation period usually last some months, the continuity of care often is interrupted in the transition from the hospital to the home. Virtual Coaches can help these patients to proceed with a personalized rehabilitation that complies to age-related conditions, as the key technology for empowering patients through the enhancement of the adherence to the care plan and the risk prevention. The project “vCare” (Virtual Coaching Activities for Rehabilitation in Elderly) addresses two major shortcomings of the status quo: a participatory design driven by users’ needs and the personalization of the care pathways enabled by technology. In fact that rehabilitation is an ideal setting as “users” (physicians and patients) interact together for a “long” period into the clinic (from two weeks to two months): this is a good opportunity to embed into the knowledge of the system the clinical profiles and the pathways that will drive the behaviour of the virtual coach at home. Well-elaborated services for tele-rehabilitation of former EU projects, such as eWall or Miracolus Life, will be adapted. Therefore, the system will integrate a semantic layer (universAAL) including a reasoning engine that merges all patient-related and context information together. The advanced services of vCare will be deployed on a reference platform of MYSPHERA (FIWARE-based) and implemented in four reference sites, dealing with commonly impacted domains (neurological and cardiological). The results of vCare shall stimulate the European Healthcare & ICT sector for innovations in the field of integrated care. In sum, vCare will contribute to the EU goal to increase healthy life years of Europeans by two until 2020.