**3.2 Patient empowerment for major surgery preparation at home**

The project PAPRIKA (patient empowerment for major surgery preparation at home) is an EIT Health Innovation Project, started in January 2019 and that will finish on January 2022. PAPRIKA establishes a technologically enabled and personalized program to prepare patients for elective surgery and to provide follow-up, as a way to improve the outcomes of the operation. The program develops close collaboration with the medical environment that empowers patients to co-create their own care. PAPRIKA will roll out its services fully in Spain, Germany, France, and Poland.

The project integrates short-term preoperative interventions, averaging about four weeks and including endurance training, promotion of physical activity and nutritional and psychological support. Interventions are planned both in the community and at the hospital, reducing unnecessary interactions between patients and tertiary care. The project incorporates two digital solutions (see **Figure 5**): a case management system for professionals, integrated with the electronic health record (EHR); and a self-management system for patients, integrated with the regional health folder. Both digital solutions have been built upon xCARE. **Figure 6** shows how xCARE has been adapted for the PAPRIKA aims. The following functionalities, powered by the xCARE microservice architecture, are currently available:

• Prescription, to allow professionals to prescribe any kind of tasks to the patients: physical activity, medical check-up, mindfulness and nutrition tasks, drug intake, and questionnaire filling.

<sup>12</sup> Apple store: https://apps.apple.com/es/app/connecare-h2020/id1364574255?l=en and Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=connecare.mobile&hl=en

*xCARE: A Development Platform for Supporting Smart and Pervasive Healthcare DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.95951*

#### **Figure 5.**

*A sketch of the PAPRIKA overall system.*
