Integrated care digital-based interventions for multimorbid patients suffering from chronic respiratory conditions in Brazil, Serbia and Türkiye

Focusing on chronic respiratory conditions (CRDs), LMICs pay an unfairly high cost in terms of morbidity and mortality. Along with the existence of CRDs, other multiple long-term chronic conditions co-exist, including ischemic heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, osteoporosis and depression. Current care in these countries presents significant shortcomings such as the limited availability of affordable and user-friendly digital tools for remote monitoring and patient engagement, while care fragmentation is even more evident creating substantial inequality to the health services and outcomes, greatly affecting their Universal Health Coverage. In this direction, the 48-month implementation research-driven MULTIPULM project aims to apply an integrated care digital-based ecosystem, consisting of evidence-based tools, for effectively managing long-term conditions and enhancing secondary prevention of multimorbid patients suffering from chronic respiratory conditions with the focus on LMIC countries of Brazil, Serbia and Türkiye. MULTIPULM approach and offerings aim to improve the QoL of patients and their families as well as tackle the social, financial, political and organizational disparities linked with high challenging management of multimorbidity, formulating a reference paradigm for other LMICs to follow. The successful implementation of the integrated care models paradigms will be orchestrated by a meticulous detailed implementation roadmap and local capacity building activities for the creation of a critical mass of local stakeholders. In this light, MULTIPULM will be validated at large-scale with 3200 multimorbid patients in the 3 targeted LMIC countries. Last but not least, a socio-economic and financial assessment is scheduled to support local policy makers in the continuation of the project activities beyond its duration, contributing to the long-term sustainability of its benefits and to the improvement of the targeted countries’ UHC index.