Aim

The aim of the MOBILIZE project is to empower patients with multiple chronic conditions to take a more active role in their health care through a tailored exercise therapy and education program so that they may reduce symptoms of the individual conditions, increase quality of life and physical function and prevent development of other chronic conditions.

Background

Multimorbidity, commonly defined as the co-occurrence of two or more chronic medical conditions in an individual, is associated with decreased quality of life, functional decline and increased health care utilization. Multimorbidity affects millions of people around the world and is considered the number one challenge for the health care system in the years to come due to the enormous associated personal and societal consequences.

The health care system and most research focus on one medical condition at a time, and treatment plans often fail to take a holistic perspective. We know from qualitative research that treating one condition at a time is inconvenient, inefficient and unsatisfactory for the person with the chronic conditions as well as his or her health care provider. Research on effective treatment of multimorbidity is lacking. The MOBILIZE project is going to change that.

Mission

The MOBILIZE project is going to investigate the effects of a tailored exercise therapy and education program in addition to current best practice on self-reported, objectively measured and physiological outcomes in people with multimorbidity (i.e. at least two of the following diseases: knee or hip osteoarthritis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart disease (heart failure or coronary heart disease), hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus, depression).

The project will provide new insight into which treatment is the most effective. This insight is essential to ensure the best possible treatment for this large and growing group of patients.

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The 5-year project is based at the Research Unit for Musculoskeletal Function and Physiotherapy in the Department of Sports Science and Clinical Biomechanics at the University of Southern Denmark and the PROgrez research unit in the Department of Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy at Næstved-Slagelse-Ringsted Hospitals.

Strong interdisciplinary collaboration involving many different scientific methodologies and a high degree of patient involvement throughout the entire research process are at the heart of the project to ensure relevance to the patients and the health care system and to make sure that the project is implementable in clinical practice afterwards.

The MOBILIZE project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement No 801790).