NPA SelfCare Iceland Workshop

The EU Interreg funded SelfCare project team met in the rural town of Siglufjörður, Iceland on April 21-22, 2026 for their 4th workshop to continue planning for the next steps which will be the pilot phase of this Sept 2024 to August 2027 project. 

https://www.interreg-npa.eu/projects/selfcare/  

In this remote region of Iceland, Memaxi communication and planning solution using a display app on a tablet, is utilised for individuals needing memory support, their families, and carers, aimed at promoting independent living. This allows the users to view their schedules, look at photos and receive reminders. Their carers then use a mobile app to input content and make video calls to the user. https://memaxi.com/  

After spending time in Siglufjörður, we could see the environmental challenges that affect travel including frequent avalanche warnings where roads are closed and coastal roads damaged by the Arctic seas. These affect transport in the winter especially so a remote software solution is valuable to the older residents. We also learned about the herring industry that was lucrative for Siglufjörður for many years until the herring migrated elsewhere. In their resilience, they now have developed tourism including a very impressive collection of museums demonstrating life during the herring years and heli skiing where helicopters carry skiers up to the top of the mountains so they can ski off-piste. 

For Sweden there are different challenges. The Sami people migrate with their reindeer and cross health care regions which creates difficulty for them to plan and follow through with healthcare. The 1177.se is the healthcare system’s dedicated website and is the contact number for the helpline which will be answered by a nurse who is familiar with the Sami culture. The nurse can give them advice on how to manage their condition and where to go for care. https://www.1177.se/en/other-languages/1177-in-other-languages/  

The School of Medicine, University of Limerick team in Ireland (Professor Liam Glynn, Professor Peter Hayes, Dr Iryna Mamai, Monica Casey)  will be working with the new HSE Health App for the pilot programme with the participation of a group of Ukrainian people residing in Co Clare. This app is a secure way to access HSE information, find health services and keep personal health information which is helpful particularly where there are language barriers. This app is accessed by using a mobile phone. https://www2.hse.ie/health-app/about-your-hse-health-app/ . 

The team members from Iceland, Sweden and the University of Limerick reviewed and update the project concepts of gains realisation, horizontal principles, risk evaluation, co-creation workshop results. 

Planning included discussions on solutions for building trust with participants, organisational boundaries, service models, data sharing across systems, anchoring change, managing information and communication, how to expand education and training, how to narrow down the results of our co-creation groups results to a practical pilot, outlining pilot methods, analysis and Use of SUS – System Usability Scale as baseline and final evaluation, and then scaling innovation ideas and reporting results. 

So far, for our project communication and dissemination, we have created a brief movie, newsletters and 2 podcasts. https://www.interreg-npa.eu/projects/selfcare/home/news-events/npa-selfcare-podcast/ 

We are looking forward to carrying out this next pilot phase and the learnings that will ensue to aid the people involved to experience culturally appropriate selfcare. The team plans to use the information gained to develop an annex of how to secure culturally appropriate service development for the Roadmap for Service Innovation in Sweden and we will share this report with other healthcare services.