During the 24th and 25th of January of this year we were glad to make the Pepper project meeting, referring to the 25th to 36th months of the project, in the city of Girona. Girona is not only the headquarter of the University of Girona (UdG), where the eXiT group is placed, but also the city of the University Hospital Dr. Josep Trueta.

The meeting, which was held at the Polytechnic number IV building, enjoyed the presence of Cellnovo, Romsoft, Biomedical Research Institute of Girona (IdibGi), Imperial College of London (ICL) and Oxford Brookes (OBU) and us, the hosts.

The Cellnovo group, with Ben at the head, was reviewing the improvements that had been made to the mobile application, used by the users in order to receive the recommendations and control the whole Pepper system. The Romsoft group, through Lucian, detailed the modifications made to the Pepper website, used by the clinicians to review the cases and the system parameters, with the aim of improving the system. The clinicians of ICL and IdibGi, represented by Pari and Marzena, respectively, were explaining the details of the clinical phase 3, as well as showing the first results of recently finished phase 2. On the other hand, Pau, also from ICL, and in charge of the safety system of Pepper, reviewed some of the details of the improvements of the system regarding the safety. From the UdG, Pablo, in charge of the dissemination package, explained some of our achievements about the project popularity, as well as shown us the video we recorded a few months ago. Regarding to the CBR, the core of the recommender system, I explained the small changes made in the CBR parameters in order to adjust it as much as possible to the clinical requirements. Clare, coordinator and member of OBU, reviewed the current state of the project and insisted on completing it in accordance with the initial specifications.

It should be said that, during the two days that the meeting lasted, not only each group shown their contributions and reviewed the status of each task, but also a Project Steering Group Meeting and an Innovation Advisory Boardmeeting were carried out.

In addition, we were able to enjoy the presence of some patients, who explained us their experience with Pepper insulin recommender. In general, the patients give a very good evaluation of the product and point out that the system helped them to increase the knowledge of their own illness.

Taking advantage of the situation, on the evening of 24th we visited Girona. A touristic guide explained to the members of the Pepper project the secrets that are hidden behind the walls of Girona and its historic quarter: Jews, ‘xuixos’ and flies. This city is not only interesting for its architecture, as the fans of ‘Game of Thrones’ know, but also for its gastronomy and history. In the night we went to dinner all together in order to co-fraternize a bit more.

In summary: two beautiful days of work and pleasure in Girona.

 Information:  Pepper Newsletter