On 19-20 May, the DORIAN GRAY Public Involvement Board met in person in Milan, hosted by the Department of Design, Politecnico di Milano, for a face-to-face meeting with the project’s research team. The meeting provided a valuable opportunity for members and researchers to exchange ideas, experiences and feedback in a collaborative and engaging environment.

During the meeting, members of the Public Involvement Board had the opportunity to test the exergames developed within the DORIAN GRAY project. Discussions focused on how comfortable participants felt when interacting with the games, as well as how engaging and motivating the exergame experience was overall. In another interactive session, members were given a smartphone to test the project’s digital coach. This hands-on activity allowed participants to explore the functionality and usability of the digital coaching system and to share their impressions directly with the research team.

The meeting marked an important milestone for the project, as it was the first time that members of the DORIAN GRAY Public Involvement Board and the research team met in person. Members who attended the session participated actively and provided insightful feedback to support the further improvement of the DORIAN GRAY app and exergames, which aim to promote healthy ageing and address the link between cardiovascular disease and cognitive impairment. An online follow-up meeting will be organised in the coming weeks, during which researchers will provide feedback on the discussions held in Milan and explain how contributions from members have helped improve the platform and the games.

The meeting was organised by Alzheimer Europe, which leads the Public Involvement work within the project, and was represented by Soraya Moradi-Bachiller and Cindy Birck, alongside researchers from several project partner organisations: Nicola Francesco Lopomo, Marco Loddo from Politecnico di Milano, Leonardo Angelini, Benedetta Giachetti, Ugo Eb-Levadoux, Arianna Boldi from Haute École Spécialisée de Suisse Occidentale, and Erik Berglund and Aseel Berglund from Liopep AB.

The project partners would like to extend their heartfelt gratitude to all members of the DORIAN GRAY Public Involvement Board for their engagement, commitment and invaluable contributions to the project.