At the start of the project, the participants from Halle and eight guests from Kosovo have met from March 14th to 17th, 2022 in the Digital HealthCare Hub of the Dorothea Erxleben Learning Center of the Medical Faculty in Halle. The participants had different scientific and non-scientific backgrounds, so that the group combines specialist knowledge from nursing (science) and health and social care as well as from software development (IT and start-ups) and engineering. Interprofessional cooperation and ways of thinking are strengthened through the interlocking of various actors involved in healthcare. In addition to the working group for health services research in the hospital of the University Medicine Halle, which takes on the role of mentor, the main implementing partner in Kosovo is Kolegji Heimerer.
The aim of the first joint face-to-face event in Halle was to get to know each other personally, to present research methods and to coordinate cooperation, but also to look at Halle’s “Future Care Lab”, which is to be set up in Kosovo in a mirror image. In addition, an important focus is to give an insight into the programming and already established application scenarios of the humanoid communication robot Pepper and the resulting potential for health care in order to develop sustainable structures adapted to Kosovo.