IBV promotes healthy living and wellbeing in an online platform

The Institute of Biomechanics joins the fight against the expansion of COVID-19 by opening different applications to help citizens in this confinement.

The new platform brings together various resources that have been developed with the support of the Valencian Institute of Business Competitiveness (IVACE) of the Generalitat Valenciana.
The Institute of Biomechanics (IBV) joins the effective fight against the expansion of COVID-19 by making available to citizens an online platform with resources to promote healthy living and improved well-being during this stage of confinement.
The portal www.ibv.org/yomequedoencasa offers applications and advice adapted to different age groups to help people maintain a healthy life at home, stay active, telework safely with adapted work stations, combat loneliness and promote active ergonomics.
In the words of IBV’s Processes and Strategy Manager, Erika Martino, “as a leading research centre in people’s health, wellbeing and quality of life, we have made available to the public the results of our research, which have been supported by the Valencian Institute of Business Competitiveness (IVACE)”.

One of the resources focuses on helping people to detect how they are feeling about their physical and emotional well-being, a situation that can be complicated in this time of confinement.
The SUMMAT tool, designed mainly for companies that want to make them available to their staff to improve their well-being, is now open for free so that everyone can use them. It provides a diagnosis of well-being hopes to challenge people to improve it according to the needs of each person.
IBV also offers the 3D avatar body application to monitor our body, in order to see what is its evolution over time or if we are following any diet or training plan. “In this situation, it can be useful to motivate people to maintain a healthy lifestyle” says Erika Martino.
Along these lines, the platform also contains resources for exercise, which is fundamental for maintaining physical and mental health. In this aspect, the Institute of Biomechanics has joined the initiatives of COLEF CV.

Many people have also been forced to move the office to their homes, a situation full of risks in which it is important to know, from a technical and scientific point of view, what the guidelines are for adapting to the new tasks.
IBV wants to help the citizens by sharing its knowledge in another area where it is an expert, the promotion of ergonomics in the workplace. Thus, it has enabled another section where recommendations are included to adapt the work space, and to make active breaks and stretching that will help people to undertake safe teleworking.
The aim is “to avoid neck and back problems, etc., and above all to avoid the appearance of musculoskeletal disorders derived from the lack of ergonomics and adaptation of the workplace”, concludes Erika Martino.

In this new platform, IBV does not forget our elderly, for which it has included several resources to fight loneliness or even keep the brain active.

For example, the section “Connect” includes guidelines to maintain contact with older relatives through video calls, as well as training materials such as AD-GAMING, which increase the technological and digital skills of people with Alzheimer’s, their families and their caregivers through games.

Finally, the Institute of Biomechanics is working to address COVID-19 both in the current scenario and in the future, for which it also wants to involve society.
Thus, the institute is evaluating the impact that the pandemic is having on the population’s exercise and physical activity, what problems it is facing and how it is affecting their motivation. A questionnaire is available on the platform for participation.
And finally, IBV invites citizens to participate in the innovation by joining the VALENCIA.DATA project, an initiative to help the advance of R&D in different aspects, among others those related to the fight against the coronavirus. It collects and stores data that will be used in the different initiatives of IBV in the design of products and services to improve quality of life.

More information at www.ibv.org/yomequedoencasa