The Health and Social Pole of the Alt Empordà, INDIKA, is an institution that aims to provide the population with accurate information about the Alt Empordà region with respect to public health matters that may be useful in making decisions about the region. The Observatory is in charge of promoting the analysis of the health situation and its determinants, particularly of the socioeconomic ones, in the Alt Empordà region.
The Observatory project, promoted by the Empordà Health Foundation (FSE, Fundació Salut Empordà), has the collaboration of the Figueres City Council (Ayuntamiento de Figueres) and the Alt Empordà Regional Council (Alt Empordà Consejo Comarcal). It must be noted that this project arose from the European Territorial Cooperation Project (ETCP) of Girona, a healthy region, in which the Provincial Council of Girona (Diputación de Girona), the Independent Public Health body of this Provincial Council (DIPSALUT), and the Biomedical Research Institute of Girona (IdIBGi, Institut d’Investigació Biomèdica de Girona) also participate. In addition to the participation of the University of Girona (UdG) in the supervision of the ETCP, the Research Group on Statistics, Econometrics, and Health (GRECS, Grup de Recerca en Estadística, Econometria i Salut) also participates directly in the architecture of this Observatory (INDIKA, Pol de Salut i Social de l'Alt Empordà).
The general goal of this project is to eventually develop a scientific/technical unit that will promote the analysis of the health situation and its determining factors, especially the socioeconomic ones, in the Alt Empordà region, always with a reference to the rest of Catalonia, Spain, and Europe, and to eventually provide this information (i.e., the information resulting from the integration of the Health Observatory and the RWD) to public and private entities that may have an influence on improving the region’s state of well-being.
One of the most important topics of interest of the GRECS and the FSE is the analysis of chronic diseases. Thus, the first research sub-project motivated by the Health Observatory started in this context, coinciding with one of my sub-lines of research within the line of Clinical Epidemiology research.
The main aim of this sub-project is to better manage chronic multi-morbidity and complexity, reduce hospital admissions and emergency care demands, and achieve a more adequate use of medicines.