ASOCIACION PARKINSON MADRID

Their core work

Asociación Parkinson Madrid is a patient association based in Madrid that represents and supports people living with Parkinson's disease. In H2020 projects, they serve as a real-world clinical and patient engagement partner, contributing patient cohorts, lived-experience expertise, and validation environments for ICT-based care solutions. Their work focuses on testing digital health tools, assistive technologies, and integrated care platforms designed to improve quality of life for elderly and neurodegenerative disease patients.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

APM's early H2020 involvement (2016-2018) centered on general assisted living and ICT services for elderly populations, with projects like ACROSSING and ICT4Life addressing broad technology-for-care challenges. From 2019 onward, their focus sharpened toward disease-specific digital biomarkers, quantifiable health endpoints, and affective computing — reflecting the broader health-tech shift from generic care tools to precision digital health. The recent projects show more sophisticated clinical validation goals, such as measuring fatigue and sleep disturbances through digital endpoints in IDEA-FAST.

APM is moving from passive end-user testing toward active participation in clinical-grade digital endpoint validation, making them increasingly valuable for medtech and digital therapeutics projects.

How they like to work

APM exclusively participates as a partner — they have never coordinated an H2020 project, which is typical for patient associations that provide domain expertise rather than project management. They consistently work in large consortia, with 114 unique partners across 21 countries, indicating they are well-integrated into the European health research ecosystem. Their value to consortia lies in providing direct access to Parkinson's patient communities for recruitment, testing, and co-design.

APM has collaborated with 114 unique partners across 21 countries, building a broad European network concentrated in the health-digital intersection. Their reach across so many partners relative to just 5 projects indicates they join large, multi-national consortia.

What sets them apart

APM brings something most research organizations cannot: direct, sustained access to a Parkinson's disease patient community in a major European capital. This makes them an essential partner for any project requiring patient recruitment, real-world validation of assistive technologies, or co-design with end users. For consortium builders, partnering with APM adds both clinical credibility and genuine patient involvement — increasingly required by EU funding calls.

Highlights from their portfolio

• IDEA-FAST
  Largest and longest project (2019-2026), focused on identifying digital endpoints for fatigue and sleep in neurodegenerative and inflammatory disorders — a frontier area in digital health.
• PROCare4Life
  Highest EC funding to APM (EUR 483,250), developing a personalized integrated care solution for elderly with multiple conditions — their most resource-intensive engagement.
• TeNDER
  Combines affective computing with multi-sensing environments for care quality improvement, representing APM's involvement in emotionally-aware AI applied to healthcare.