The team of SENDoc project came all together at Joensuu, Finland on 11th and 12th April 2018 to hold their second meeting, entitled: “Establishing Networks and the Commencement of Demonstrators in Rural Regions”. The key objective was to review SENDoc project status and sustainability; network and being able to share experiences and feedback.
On Wednesday 11th April 2018 at Koli
In the morning we traveled by bus from the city of Joensuu to Koli, which is considered one of the most beautiful landscapes in Finland. While traveling to Koli guests from Sweden, Ireland and Northern Ireland had the opportunity to sight the typical Finnish rural surroundings and areas. For example, distances are long, therefore you have to own a car. We had our first day meeting at harbor restaurant Alamaja, which is by the lake Pielinen. It´s the fourth largest lake in Finland (Pictures 1 and 2).
On the first day, Antti Alamäki gave a short presentation about the Finnish Higher Education and Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) activities at Karelia UAS. The Introduction of this second partner meeting was held by Dr. Joan Condell from the leading partner institution Ulster University.
After these presentations we had a discussion and went through the review of SENDoc work packages for the first period of the project. In the afternoon a Finnish company MoveSole (www.movesole.com) introduced their smart insole, which is employed to measure forces underneath the feet. MoveSole has only approval for research purposes at this moment, but its medical approval is ongoing and it is expected to be attained by Spring 2018.
Richard Davies gave also a presentation of his research plan corresponding to gait analysis for post-stroke patient rehabilitation. At the end of the day we took a “walking meeting” to the top of Koli.
On Thursday 12th April at Karelia University of Applied Sciences
Partner meeting started with explanation about healthcare system in Finland presented by Antti Alamäki. Presentation was about changes in Finnish social and healthcare services and structure of Siun Sote (Joint Municipal Authority for North Karelia Social and Health Services), that is a pilot for new kind of social and healthcare services in Northern Karelia region. Antti also talked about elderly rehabilitation services, home care and multidisciplinary home rehabilitation in Finland. Sensors could be used for example to screen functional capacity and to measure the increase of functional capacity after a specific problem or sudden event during the home rehabilitation process.
After the lunch it was time to explore the physiotherapy testing facilities at Karelia University of Applied Scienses, Tikkarinne campus. SENDoc partners had opportunity to familiarize with the analysis systems in the testing facility and the sensors tested in Karelia.
The Second day of SENDoc meeting ended with reflection and feedback.