Gamified Digital Solutions for Tinnitus Health Literacy: The Erasmus+ Project TinWise.

Tinnitus is a common auditory symptom - sound perceived without an external source. Chronic tinnitus affects about 65 million adults in the EU, often impairing quality of life through distress, sleep problems, anxiety, and depression. Yet, management remains inconsistent across Europe due to patient heterogeneity and lack of standardised care. Health literacy is increasingly recognised as key to empowering patients in self-management and reducing burden. The Erasmus+ project TinWise addresses this by creating a gamified health literacy platform for tinnitus patients and educating healthcare professionals on digital self-help strategies. Building on Tin-TRAC, which developed an open-access e-learning platform, TinWise integrates gamification to enhance motivation, engagement, and knowledge retention. The project applies the OPHELIA framework to optimise literacy strategies and follows the ASPIRE learning construct for co-creating content. TinWise will deliver interactive, co-created digital games to promote self-help literacy, an AI-powered chatbot for real-time guidance, and a patient-linking service to enhance community support. It also aims to train healthcare professionals using reusable learning objects, supporting the integration of digital tools into tinnitus care. Through modern technology and inclusive design, TinWise supports European priorities in digital education, patient empowerment, and healthcare innovation, ultimately improving tinnitus care and outcomes across Europe.