Duration of the project:
1. 7. 2025 – 31. 12. 2025
Lead partner:
University of Primorska, Faculty of Health Sciences
Principal investigator at UP Faculty of Health Sciences:
Assist. Denis Černeka, MSc
Team at UP Faculty of Health Sciences:
- Prof. Boštjan Žvanut, PhD (SICRIS, ResearchGate)
- Assist. Prof. Patrik Pucer, PhD (SICRIS, ResearchGate
PROJECT RESULTS:
Modern technology and the process of logging in and using various apps pose a challenge for most users. This is also evident when older adults use eHealth services. In an effort to assist them and present the benefits of using these services in an accessible and straightforward manner, master’s students at the Nursing program and staff members of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Primorska (UP FVZ), with the help of their lecturers, submitted a project to a public call for co-financing of health promotion programs and projects in the Municipality of Koper in 2025, titled “Teaching Older Adults to Use Digital Public Health Services.” The project was selected for co-funding and was successfully implemented in September 2025, during which older adults obtained a digital certificate, registered for the zVEM service and the IRIS portal, and learned about their functionalities.
The project also led to the creation of the handbook Practical Guide to Using the zVEM and IRIS Portals, which is publicly available and free of charge at https://doi.org/10.26493/978-961-293-480-4.
The project team included Prof. Dr. Boštjan Žvanu, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Patrik Pucer, Dr. Vesna Grahovac, Dr. Barbara Jurša Potocco, M.Sc. Denis Černeka, and master’s students at the Nursing program Neli Vodopivec, Karin Hrobat, and Valentina Masten.
Key Findings of the Project:
- Older adults need targeted professional support when adopting digital health services, as they face a shortage of knowledge and fear of using technology.
- Due to this lack of knowledge, they may be more vulnerable to cyber abuse, making the enhancement of digital literacy a matter of security as well.
- Digitally literate patients are more independent when using healthcare services, which reduces the administrative burden on healthcare staff.
The project thus represents a significant contribution to the development of a more accessible, efficient, and sustainable healthcare system, as strengthening patients’ digital competencies benefits both users and healthcare staff in the long term.
Abstract
The idea is to train senior citizens to use the services or applications Zvem and Iris. In addition to the aforementioned applications, they would also be helped in obtaining and installing digital certificates. We note that a major problem for the aforementioned target group is precisely access to doctors, prescriptions, referrals, and medical reports.
We would include FVZ students in the project, who would prepare materials and conduct training under our mentorship. The latter would be in two parts: the first, more theoretical part would include transmitting information about the benefits that the applications bring, getting to know the applications, and completing application forms for a digital certificate. In the second part, we would answer any questions, help install digital certificates if necessary, provide assistance with logging into the application, and discover the applications themselves.
