Within the 6th Framework Programme of the European Commission which is directed at the development of the European economy based on knowledge, recently a new project was launched under the name MPOWER. It is a system integration project within the e-health domain that is targeting to develop the start of the art information-communication middleware platform to support an intelligent home for the elderly and people with difficulties in cognitive processes. One of participants in the project is Ericsson Nikola Tesla, based on the knowledge of its experts in the e-health area and their system integration competencies.

The company's representative in the project board and the leader of the ETK's expert team is Miroslav Končar, M. Sc., also the co-chair of the HL7's International Affiliate Committee, the body that is representing state affiliates to the most advanced medical ICT standards organization. His words with regards to MPOWER:

"The fact that Ericsson Nikola Tesla got the opportunity to participate in MPOWER project that is financed from the 6th Framework Programme of the European Commission is the recognition of the company's high reputation outside Croatia. Considering that Croatia is not yet a member of the EU, it was only our knowledge and experience that got us involved in the project. The results that ETK has so far achieved in Croatia on e-health projects and our active participation in the international standardization bodies have put us into the focus and have enabled us to join different European initiatives. Within the MPOWER project our main responsibility refers to the integration of the smart house technologies and advanced applications to support quality of life of elderly population and people with cognitive disorders such as dementia. Primarily we shall target the architecture definition and the integration of local systems that collect data about a person's health into advanced systems, which together need to support the adoption of business and user needs to advanced ICT architectures and technologies."

The Project Team gathered recently in Trondheim, Norway to discuss further steps, comprising of representatives of Ericsson Nikola Tesla, Dimension Informatica from Spain, Norvegian SINTEF Institute, ARC Seibersdorf research GmbH from Austria, the University of Cyprus, Uniwersytet Jagiellonski Collegium Medicum from Poland, Vestfold Mental Health Care Trust and the Span's TB-Solutions Advanced Technologies S.L.

The MPOWER project will bring new technology that makes software houses capable of meeting the increasing demand of supporting technology and services for cognitive disabled and older people. The MPOWER project is one of two projects where the European commission invests in increasing the competitiveness of general software industry to facilitate the increasing market of technology for older people. The MPOWER platform is based on open standards and technology, focusing on provision of interoperable solutions. The realization of the project will according to some estimates span the coming 30 months, with the project budget of EURO 3,9 million, in which EU participates with EURO 2,35 million.

Communication of Ericsson Nikola Tesla