MULTI-ACT Digital Toolbox Demo – Event Report

On 9 March 2021, MULTI-ACT Project participants had a first look at the MULTI-ACT Digital Toolbox during an online demo session organised by the European Health Management Association (EHMA). The event brought together stakeholders and potential end-users and its objective was to gather feedback on the toolbox itself, its usefulness for the participating organisations and ways its uptake could be facilitated.

The MULTI-ACT Digital Toolbox is one of the deliverables of the MULTI-ACT Project funded by the European Union Horizon 2020 Programme. The project aims to increase the positive impact on people living with brain disorders. The toolbox is designed to enhance the cooperation of different stakeholders in the field of brain disease research and innovation, and its end-goal is to promote institutional changes.

The MULTI-ACT Digital Toolbox design features models developed within the project framework, primarily:

• MULTI-ACT Governance Model, highlighting the role of governance to guide the work of multi-stakeholder research teams,
• patient engagement guidelines, fostering cooperation between patients and researchers, and
• MULTI-ACT Master Scoreboard, containing indicators to assess the performance and potential of research.

The toolbox gathers inputs of healthcare payers and providers, keeping the system sustainable and empowering the experiential knowledge of patients. This helps Research Funding and Performing Organisations define and realise the benefits of patients, while also ensuring that their research programme is evidence supported. The MULTI-ACT Governance Model and Master Scoreboard are used to guarantee that mission-oriented research initiatives express their potential with a strong decision-making structure, shared responsibility, measurable assessment and indicators. 

During the event, George Tsakirakis, Senior Programmer at INTRASOFT and Sofia Tsekeridou, Senior Research and Innovation Manager at INTRASOFT demonstrated how the MULTI-ACT Digital Toolbox can be used. The demonstration was followed by a QA session where participants addressed their questions and shared their feedback on the usefulness of the toolbox in brain disease research.

In the US, I serve on the National Alzheimer’s Plan Act (NAPA) Committee. They will be very interested in this work I will share with them.

–         Arliene Bierman, National Alzheimer’s Plan Act, USA

Arliene Bierman from the National Alzheimer’s Plan Act (NAPA) in the USA shared that she serves on the NAPA Committee and that she believes the toolbox is relevant for the work they do. Dr Kovacs Eszter from the Semmelweis University in Hungary suggested that the toolbox seems like a complex yet useful tool and shared that he will be glad to spend more time exploring its components.

Thanks for this interesting overview, it seems a very complex and useful tool, so would be glad to spend some more time to explore each component.

–         Dr Kovacs Eszter, Semmelweis University, Hungary

The final version of the toolbox will be released after the project’s end in May 2021, and it will be accessible from the multiact.eu website for all.

Please find below the event recording:

An introductory video to the MULTI-ACT toolbox is now available: