PALLIAKID

PALLIAKID is a Horizon Europe health project aimed at developing innovative interventions to enhance the wellbeing and quality of life for children and adolescents requiring palliative and end-of-life care, with a focus on engaging patients and their family caregivers.

PALLIAKID is Funded by the EU with nearly 7 million euros, the initiative was launched in December 2023 and will run for 4.5 years. The Project consortium includes 17 partners from 12 European countries, with five clinical sites in Spain, Italy, Denmark, Finland, and Latvia, and is coordinated by SJD Barcelona Children’s Hospital. Innovate UK supports the project in the United Kingdom. Annually, about 170,000 children in Europe die without access to palliative care. PALLIAKID is designed to evaluate the feasibility, effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness of new interventions for these children across different European healthcare systems, emphasizing active engagement of patients and families.

PALLIAKID tackles several critical needs identified by its clinical partners, focusing on three key aspects of pediatric palliative care:

• Early identification of children with palliative needs
• Comprehensive assessment of children and their caregivers’ needs
• A personalized, interdisciplinary care plan that includes Advance Care Planning

The project’s main outputs include the PALLIAKID Early Detection System, an intervention suite (Needs Assessment, Advance Care Planning, and Patient Journey digital platform), and an XR-based training program for professionals. It will also develop policy recommendations and a scale-up strategy to ensure the project’s sustainability and impact, aiming to reduce the misconceptions about pediatric palliative care with its Public Engagement Strategy.

The role of Metropolia University of Applied Sciences & Helsinki XR Center

Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, through Helsinki XR Center, holds two main roles in PalliaKid:

• develop a VR-based training tool for professionals, with which they could train to interact and communicate with the patients and their relatives in these difficult situations. This is proposed to be achieved through AI-controlled characters which offer realistic feedback, discussion points and gestures to the trainee. The tool will also support the professionals in learning how to utilize the different tools developed during the project.
• support the development of mobile digital platform, concentrating especially on motivating the patients to take care of themselves, and to develop a digital friend, which can offer support and information.

The project has only just started and is currently in a design and research phase. The development will begin next Autumn.