One of the winners of the Digital Health Award 2022 is a project funded via FH-Sozial: The innovative BaSeTaLK app received the audience prize at the award ceremony in March. The CUAS Mainz and OTH Regensburg jointly developed the app to shape biography work in care and retirement homes. Through the app, residents can take virtual trips to places such as a garden, the cinema, or a library where they are invited to interact with each other and talk about their life stories. The conversations are led by elderly volunteers.

The virtual excursions promote social participation, help users to reconnect with their memories, and thus improve their quality of life. First data show that the concept is widely accepted, that the app is viewed positively by users and that many of them even changed their perspective on the discussed topics. The app was developed in close cooperation with the target group. The associated research project BaSeTaLK (“Biography work in senior facilities with tablet support to improve quality of life and communication”) will be funded until the end of 2022, after which the app will be made available as open source so that it can be freely used by companies and organisations.

The annual Digital Health Award is presented by the Novartis Pharma GmbH to honour and promote innovative ideas for healthcare. In addition to the audience prize, which is equivalent to 3rd place, the award comprises two jury prizes (1st and 2nd place) and a special prize.

The BaSeTaLK team plans to use the prize money of 10,000 euros to continue and improve the concept after funding via FH-Sozial has expired – a great success for the project partners.