An Italian team leads an international project that aims to catch the onset of these diseases, using toys equipped with sensors
The so-called “4P medicine” (P4 Medicine, i.e. Preventive, Participatory, Personalized and Predictive) is finding application in ever wider fields. So he could not escape this modern scientific paradigm that of neurodevelopmental disorders.
What am I
“Neurodevelopmental disorders are a group of sensory-motor, cognitive, communication, learning and behavior disorders very frequent (1 child out of 10 is affected) whose causes are multifactorial but with an early onset and consequences that affect the whole life» explains the professor John Cioni scientific director of the Irccs Stella Maris Foundation of Calambrone (Pisa). “Despite advances in our understanding of causes, the diagnosis and the initiation of the intervention are often late and occur many months after the onset of the first clinical signs and are not based on quantitative data.
How to be able to grasp these signals in such young children
The European project «Tech-Toys», coordinated by Giovanni Cioni, intends to do it through “intelligent” toys equipped with many highly sophisticated sensors that will allow the acquisition of digital biomarkers. The objective of the project, which will end in 2025, is to develop a new domestic and technological interactive game environment, using the experience gained in the «CareToy» project (Toys for care), for which the Stella Maris Foundation and Scuola Superiore Sant ‘Anna have invented and tested one smart gym with many sensorized toys similar to those with which children play when they are in the crib or in the playpen. Toys that contain a refined and innovative technology, over 2,000 sensors that monitor parameters such as posture and handling.
The data collection system
The data on motor skills from this experience, combined with those on the child-caregiver social interaction collected by the French team, will make it possible to develop a game setting capable of providing easy-to-handle quantitative digital biomarkers of neurodevelopment of the child and the interaction between the child, his mom and dad (or even other caregivers). “Also in this case we think of a “gym” system – continues the professor – equipped with a sensorized mat, a set of sensory toys, wearable inertial movement units and cameras”.
The next steps
There are several milestones to be achieved in the next three years. «In the first year of the project, the digital data (more than 1 terabyte) obtained during previous pilot projects using sensorized toys financed for Pisa by the EU and the Ministry of Health (10 healthy newborns, 41 preterm births but without brain injuries and 20 with injuries) and for Paris by the French National Agency for Research (25 small children with severe epileptic encephalopathies) – explains Cioni -. Thanks to this data analysis work already available will come produced the first models and methods he was
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. Also in the first year, the new sensorized toys and the new experimental settings will be developed and the first new subjects will be enrolled».
«Starting from the second year – continues the expert – will be examined, for a feasibility study, acceptance and initial predictive diagnostic efficacy, in 40 children in the first year of life with brain lesions and in 14 who will act as a control group (partly in Italy and partly in France). The third year of the project will be devoted to data analysis.’
Ethical issues and parental involvement
Also in this project, great attention will be paid to the ethical issues that the initiative raises and to parental participation of children with neurodevelopmental disorders. «The ethical, legal, social (ELSA) and health technology aspects (Health Technology Assessment – HTA) will provide key factors in the decision-making process and in the analysis of cost effectiveness. « Finally, parents’ organizations will have a strong involvement in the project activities and in the ethics committee (Ethics Monitoring Board) and will contribute to the design of the platform and the customized accuracy model», concludes the expert.
December 27, 2022 (change December 27, 2022 | 11:42 am)
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