About us
Motivations
Our society is in continuous transformation. At the demographic level, the age pyramid is being inverted and the European Commission estimates that in 2050 we will have a dependency ratio (elderly 65+/working people) of 1 to 2.
In Switzerland, life expectancy is increasing (FSO, 2020) and this goes hand in hand with a need for health care support that arises later. Indeed, not only are older people living longer, but they are also living longer without assistance in their daily lives (OBSAN, 2021).
At the same time, human services are transforming with a strong transition to digital. Older people are increasingly engaging with new technologies, as shown in a study by Anderberg (2020).
New technologies, such as Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, conversational agents and artificial intelligence, open up new perspectives for the health care field. This is why it is important to introduce this concrete contact during the Bachelor degree.
Vision and team
Today’s innovations in the field of health care requires interdisciplinary skills. We combine human technology know-how with nursing and healthcare expertise to ensure high quality care and support for end users. Our mission is to put our expertise at the service of the population in order to seek solutions to the health challenges of the 21st century, namely the chronically ill and, recently, the return of epidemic diseases. Our values are that people affected by these diseases should be able to live as healthy and independent as possible in their preferred environment. In addition, our goal is to develop and adopt advanced educational technologies to improve technology-based learning and teaching.
The University of Applied Sciences in Health Fribourg (HEdS-FR) and the HumanTech Institute of the University of Engineering and Architecture Fribourg (HEIA-FR) work closely together to share knowledge, develop a common language and innovate in research, pedagogical training and knowledge and technology transfer with partners in the field and in companies. The students of the HEdS-FR and the HEIA-FR are themselves beneficiaries and co-authors of these new approaches.
Find out more about the DHC3 initiators…
Find out more about all the participants in the DHC3 projects…
Laboratory
The Digital Health and Care Competence Center benefits from a state-of-the-art laboratory for experimenting with new practices and technologies in the fields of health and care: the HES-SO/Fribourg simulation centre located in the Mozaïk building.
The DHC3 Simulation Centre is also home to the Silver&Home living lab, an experimentation and awareness-raising laboratory on gerontechnologies, a project of the Gérontopôle Fribourg/Freiburg association.