1. General Assembly Meeting

17. March 2020

Our first CARUcares General Assembly took place on the 16th and 17th of March 2020. Due to the restrictions related to the containment of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, our meeting was not held at the WU Vienna as planned. Therefore, we instead chose to hold a digital meeting via video conference. Despite having to adjust the setting of the meeting overnight to abide by the new regulations, the two-day video conferences proved to be fruitful for all 16 participants.

The primary focus of these meetings was to discuss the results of our co-creation workshops, which were held in Belgium, Austria and Switzerland over the past several months. The ideas, needs and wishes of care workers, service staff and managers regarding the new CARU functions were presented by the WU Wien and the corresponding technical details were then discussed by the FH Wiener Neustadt the iHomeLab and CARU AG. In addition, using the MEESTAR model, Johanniter Austria informed the project partners about ethical aspects in product development. Throughout the entire project, we plan to stay in close contact with our future users and interested parties. Therefore, Schneeweis Wittmann has developed a suitable communication concept, which will help to ensure that this succeeds.

Ideas change the world only when they are shared. Participatory research approaches allow us create an atmosphere where all participants can freely share their views, opinions and concerns.

Birgit Trukeschitz from WU Vienna University of Economics and Business

We are now ready to begin developing three additional CARU components, which will incorporate ‘care documentation’, ‘communication’ and ‘arrival notification of care workers and service staff’. In the first step, we will conduct an ‘acceptance test’ in Switzerland to test CARU’s existing emergency call in real-life settings. In a brainstorming session of the General Assembly Meeting, which was grounded in the results of the co-creation workshops, Senior Living Group bonacasa AG and Johanniter Austria highlighted key performance indicators for the acceptance test from enduser organisations’ perspective. The conceptual framework for the acceptance test is currently still being developed by WU Wien in cooperation with CARU AG and bonacasa AG.