Reference Site in Łódź – the one and only in Poland and one of two in Central and Eastern Europe

On February 22nd 2016 the Lodz Voivodeship, City of Lodz, Medical University of Lodz, Nofer  Institute of Occupational Medicine in Lodz, Barlicki University Hospital in Lodz and Ericpol Sp. z o.o. signed the letter of intent in which the partners confirmed their will to cooperate preparation of a joint application in the competition for the status of the center reference site within the framework of the European Innovation Partnership for Active and Healthy Aging (European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Aging, EIP AHA). The substantive coordinator of the project was prof. Lucyna Woźniak - Vice-Rector for Science, Medical University of Lodz. The results of the competition were announced on July 13th 2016.  The Lodz consortium was rated in two stars on a 1-4 scale and is currently the only center in Poland with such a rank.

The aims of Lodz Reference Center have been closely related to EIT Health Consortium (https://www.eithealth.eu) which Medical University of Lodz is the main partner and an active member of the major initiatives supporting the sustainable development of healthcare. EIT Health's mission is to support entrepreneurship and the development of innovation in a healthy lifestyle and active aging, as well as the search for new opportunities and appropriate resources that will improve the quality of life across Europe. The EIT Health and EIP submission processes were quite parallel, but definitely participation in EIP AHA makes us more committed to the citizen engagement projects in EIT Health. There, the Reference Sites seem to be particularly active and strive to collaborate and share best practices relevant to both EIT Health and EIP AHA agendas (e.g. co-creation workshops and festivals involving local communities - we have the repository of best practices, Citizen Toolkit, which helps us design and organize such events).

One of the most important projects developing within Lodz Reference Site is the CoActive (https://www.eithealth.eu/coactive) which deals with problems of limited opportunities for urban seniors to increase their activity to meet health requirements and needs. It also realizes that ageing groups need increased levels of social interaction and communication. The first step of the project is its implementation in Lodz, where the project will work with the citizens. This project is aimed at giving them the opportunity to involve themselves in the co-design of their city, and in the way their needs are addressed, through workshops, urban exchanges, co-design and the preparation of a citizens’ event.

One of the most popular activity, carried out at the Medical University of Lodz is the Healthy Ageing Academy addressed to older citizens of Lodz region. Since the second half of 2013 (within the Healthy Ageing Research Centre – HARC project, funded within the  REGPOT – CT - 2013 – 316300) they have had  the opportunity to participate in the lectures and workshops organized by the Healthy Ageing Research Center of the Medical University of Lodz. Thanks to this initiative MUL builds up a net of cooperation with regional partners who also promote healthy ageing in the community and cooperate with lay public on elderly issues in medical, social and economic areas to develop the intellectual capacity and improve the quality of life of older people through their comprehensive activation. During 5 years of Healthy Ageing Academy approx. 300 students have had an opportunity to take part in 80 lectures on medical issues, as well as topics related to the regional, social and economic issues regarding elderly activity.

Under the coordination of prof. Tomasz Kostka – Head of Department of Geriatrics, the SUNFRAIL project (http://www.sunfrail.eu) is carried out at the Medical University of Lodz. The project works closely with the EIP-AHA network, the European Union Geriatric Medicine Society (EUGMS) working group on “Frailty in older persons” and the Joint Actions on Prevention of Frailty (ADVANTAGE) and on Prevention and Management of Chronic Diseases (Chrodis). The general objective of this activity is too improve the identification, prevention and management of frailty and care of multimorbidity in community dwelling persons (over 65) of loco-regional settings of EU countries. Professor Kostka also takes part in Screening for Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) among Older People across Europe (SCOPE) (http://www.scopeproject.eu) . The project focuses on evaluating a large scale screening programme for CKD in the older population (age 75+) in Europe and will be developing in 2-year perspective.

Activities of the Lodz Reference Center are constantly developing and assume further actions in the field of pro-social and scientific activities (successive projects carried out by Prof. Kostka - VIGOR, POSITIVE), based on the experience and knowledge from earlier work in the EIP on AHA, EU projects, the EU HSPA expert group and other contexts. It also brings up local and European partners working on creative and workable solutions that improve the lives and health of older people in region.