A team from the University of Pisa leading one of the largest European researches to validate new algorithms able to customize classification and treatment
The basic ingredients: Big data, algorithms, Next generation DNA sequencing, Action observation training (a new rehabilitation therapy based on the observation of actions and their subsequent imitation) and telerehabilitation. Result (hopefully),
a new model of personalized medicine
that allows children affected by stroke to recover as much as possible from thehemiplegiathat is l
a paralysis affecting one of the two sides of the body
caused by brain damage resulting from stroke.
The prospects
destined to open new perspectives for clinical evaluation, care and rehabilitation treatment in children with infantile cerebral palsy
, AInCP (acronimo per Clinical validation of Artificial Intelligence for providing a personalized motor clinical profile assessment and rehabilitation of upper limb in children with unilateral Cerebral Palsy) one of the most important scientific researches in Europe
clinically validate new artificial intelligence algorithms to develop evidence-based clinical decision support tools for the functional diagnosis of children with hemiplegia (paralysis on one of the two sides of the body), building tele-rehabilitation systems at home. These systems will allow not only to carry out the personalized assessment of the child’s clinical motor profile but also to set up the personalized “action observation” rehabilitation treatmenta new rehabilitation model based on the functioning of
mirror neurons.
The international team led by Italy
To lead this important project, financed for almost 6 million euros (5,999,942 to be exact) from the European Union as part of the EU Horizon Framework Program, will be the Italian team of the University of Pisa, led, as scientific director, by the researcher Giuseppina Sgandurra of the Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine with a group of researchers from the Computer Science Department of the University of Pisa coordinated by Professor Giuseppe Prencipe. The Irccs Stella Maris Foundation of Calambrone (prof. Giovanni Cioni) who will take care of the clinical trial; the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna with the Institute of Biorobotics (eng. Matteo Cianchetti) for the development of new sensorized devices with robotic technology and the Institute of Management (prof. Giuseppe Turchetti) for the sustainability of the project in European health systems. The University of Salento (prof. Fiorella Battaglia) will deal with
ethical aspects in the use of artificial intelligence in the developmental age.
For the first time the FightTheStroke Foundation participates since the design phase
with its operational arm FTS srl, the main Italian group supporting the parents of children with infantile cerebral palsy, which will bring the voice of the needs of families and co-create solutions designed around young patients.
Of the presence in the consortium of three companies in the sector is also significant: Khymeia for software development and tele-health architecture; Noldus Information Technology for the development of a new innovative software platform for the observation phase of the action observation, and Tyromotion GMBH which will guide the daily monitoring of the evaluation of the upper limbs.
As international partners you will beUniversity of Castiglia – La Mancha (Spain) and the Catholic University Leuven (Belgium) who together with Stella Maris will take care of the clinical part, providing for the involvement of at least 200 children, and the University of Queensland (Australia) for the development of artificial intelligence algorithms to be integrated into the model.
What does it mean and what are the objectives of the project?
The project is very large and complex – says Dr. Sgandurra, researcher at the University of Pisa and Head of the Innovate Laboratory of the Stella Maris Foundation -. The AInCP project aims to develop an ethical and sustainable decision-making process to provide a personalized and validated approach for the monitoring and tele-rehabilitation of hemiplegia in children with cerebral palsy, thanks to the use of artificial intelligence. Sar u
n significant example of a transdisciplinary approach thanks to a consortium in which clinicians, data scientists, physicists, engineers, economists, ethics experts, small and medium-sized enterprises, children and parents’ associations will work, all together in a synergistic way for the co-creation of diagnostic and rehabilitative approaches
i
highly innovative
clinically validated and able to be sustainable and adapted to the reality of European health systems.
Rehabilitation and social consequences
The voices of some of the protagonists highlight the complexity and relevance of the AlnCP Project. it is a great satisfaction to be able to make a contribution, together with other colleagues from our Department, to this important and exciting project – declared prof. Giuseppe Prencipe and prof. Paolo Ferragina, as Vice Rector of Computer Science of the University of Pisa and member of the research group of the Computer Science Department involved in the project – not only for the underlying scientific aspects the definition and development of new Big Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence technologies for the functional diagnosis and personalized tele-rehabilitation of children with hemiplegia, but also and above all for land rehabilitation and social consequences that these will potentially have on children and their families.
The possible effects on children and families
The professor. Giovanni Cioni, scientific director of Irccs Stella Maris Foundation highlights the possible repercussions on children and families: This is a very important project that opens up perspectives new diagnosis and therapy for the most serious and frequent movement disorder in children, cerebral palsy, The project partners are from many countries, but the essential nucleus is the result of the synergy between three institutions in Pisa, in addition to the University, the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna and the Irccs Stella Maris which has always followed these young patients. The coordinator, Giuseppina Sgandurra, was a student of all three of these institutions and was able to exploit what she learned to compete successfully and prevail over the many projects presented. Above all, we will be able to personalize our intervention more and more e provide each child and his family with the type of care with the greatest guarantee of being able to develop his adaptive functions.
High-tech devices
High technology embedded in simple objects. Within the project – explains Matteo Cianchetti, researcher at the Institute of BioRobotics of the Sant’Anna School – we will develop high-tech devices that will lead to creation of a sensorized platform in all its parts. Leveraging our experience in the field of
mechatronic technologies and soft robotics
, we will transform simple toys and objects of common use in children, into non-invasive systems for monitoring the movements of the upper limbs. The AlnCP Project wants to be immediately applicable in health systems. Our contribution – explains Giuseppe Turchetti, Full Professor of the Institute of Management of the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies – will be addressed, on the one hand, to evaluate, in a HTA (Health technology assessment) perspective, the economic implications related to technologies that will be developed within the project and, on the other hand, a design new organizational models for patient management that favor the rapid introduction into clinical practice of innovations within a framework of sustainability of our national and European health services.
Co-design: the role of parents
The role of parents will be central. We are proud to be part of this consortium and to pave the way for innovation in medicine, capitalizing on our previous experiences in “action observation”with the Mirrorable platform, and involving families in a real co-design process – explains Dr. Francesca Fedeli, Director of FTS srl -. L
a personalized medicine, data analysis, patient and family care: these are our skills, typical of the “community-led healthcare” model. We thus hope to be able contribute to an improvement in the living conditions of our children, in line with a new medicine of proximity, for a better management and rehabilitation of the most fragile categories.
March 1, 2022 (change March 1, 2022 | 13:16)
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