Satellite Event on
Innovative Systems and Services:
EU Funded Research and Industry Forum

"Transforming healthcare through mobile and wireless technologies: Innovative Systems and Services"

The Satellite Event that will take place within the framework of the 4th International Conference on Wireless Mobile Communication and Healthcare (Mobihealth 2014) is particularly focused in bringing together the research community and the industry. To this end, it consists of several different events that aim to facilitate communication and collaboration between these two diverse fields:

• Keynote Lecture by May D. Wang
• Oral presentations and demos on innovative services and products, placing particular emphasis on their practical and commercial use.
• Exhibition where successful EC funded research projects, enterprises and start-ups will present their products and results.
• The "Connected Health Workshop" aiming at discussing key challenges in the adoption of Connected Health and building networks of academics, industry, policy makers and clinicians.
• Τhe Apps4med Hackathon Awards presentation.
• IEEE EMB Greece Chapter Best Diploma Thesis Award.
• The whole event will be covered by Tech Talks Central.

Keynote Lecture by May D. Wang (Session Tue. 14:15 - 15:00): Biomedical Big Data Analytics for Patient-Centric and Outcome-Driven Health Care

Rapid advancements in biotechnologies such as –omic (genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, lipidomics etc.), next generation sequencing, bio-nanotechnologies, molecular imaging, and mobile sensors etc. accelerate the data explosion in biomedicine and health wellness. Multiple nations around the world have been seeking novel effective ways to make sense of “big data” for evidence-based, outcome-driven, and affordable 5P (Patient-centric, Predictive, Preventive, Personalized, and Precise) healthcare. I conduct multi-modal and multi-scale (i.e. molecular, cellular, whole body, individual, and population) biomedical data analytics research for discovery, development, and delivery, including translational bioinformatics in biomarker discovery for personalized care; imaging informatics in histopathology for clinical diagnosis decision support; bionanoinformatics for minimally-invasive image-guided surgery; critical care informatics in ICU for real-time evidence-based decision making; and chronic care informatics for patient-centric health.    

 

In this talk, first, I will highlight major challenges in biomedical and health informatics pipeline consisting of data quality control, information feature extraction, advanced knowledge modeling, decision making, and proper action taking through feedback.   Second, I will present the methodology research in (i) data integrity and integration; (ii) case-based reasoning for individualized care; and (iii) streaming data analytics for real-time decision support using a few mobile health case studies (e.g. Sickle Cell Disease, asthma, pain management, rehabilitation, diabetes etc.).   Last, there is big shortage of data scientists and engineers who are capable of handling Big Data. In addition, there is an urgent need to educate healthcare stakeholders (i.e. patients, physicians, payers, and hospitals) how to tackle the grant challenge together. I will discuss efforts such as patient-centric educational intervention, community-based crowd sourcing, and Biomedical Data Analytics MOOC development. 

 

Our research has been supported by NIH, NSF, Georgia Research Alliance, Georgia Cancer Coalition, Emory-Georgia Tech Cancer Nanotechnology Center, Children’s Health Care of Atlanta, Atlanta Clinical and Translational Science Institute, Microsoft Research and HP.  

Oral Presentations (Sessions Mon. 5.1 & Tue. 4.1)

Presentations are highly targeted to give a clear picture about a product or project that both industry and research community can cooperate on, in order to improve or commercially exploit it.

Data from countries with well-organized screening programs and cancer registries indicate that the vast majority among participants that developed Cervical Cancer (CxCa) are due to underestimation of cases that had at least one abnormal Pap test. In addition, women that receive an abnormal result often get discouraged and do not comply with subsequent invitations for additional examinations. The proposed project aims to develop an intelligent decision making system in order to identify women at true risk of cervical cancer development. In order to develop the proposed system a combinatorial approach of high throughput technologies will be used; a) Molecular biology techniques: DNA micro-arrays, mRNA detection, multiparameteric Flow Cytometry (FC), Cytomics and Methylomics, and b) Bioinformatics, Computational Modelling and Artificial Intelligence methods. Cumulative risk scenarios that are expected to be produced as outputs of the proposed system will be accessed and further processed with financial feasibility methods. Combination of these results, processed with semantic & ontology methods, will lead to the final product (HPVGuard) that consists of a knowledge-intensive service that will allow the design of screening programs with personalized parameters (Personalized Based Screening, PBS) for every participating woman.

Currently, several traditional IT systems exist for supporting workflows of medical imaging departments. However, there is the recognized need for the next step; an integrated and low cost open architecture platform which can manage various kinds of healthcare workflows. The implementation of such solutions can be achieved by intelligent integration of existing systems, the use of web technologies, the utilization of available web services and web semantic ontologies. Based on this approach, this project presents an advanced, integrated web platform that is generic, agnostic, knowledge based, mobile oriented and supports all medical imaging workflows, complying at the same time with international standards and initiatives. Furthermore, the utilization of knowledge management techniques and semantic web ontologies facilitate prognosis and diagnosis procedures, increase productivity and improve the accuracy and reliability of medical diagnosis.

The aim of the MobiGuide project is to develop a patient guidance system for patients with chronic illnesses, such as cardiac arrhythmias, diabetes, and high blood pressure. The system accompanies the patients wherever they go and helps them and their care providers in managing their illness, whether they are at home, at work, out and about or travelling abroad on holiday or for business.

The patients wear sensors that can monitor biosignals (e.g., heart rate, blood pressure); the signals are transmitted to their Smartphone and from there to a powerful "backend" computer. The MobiGuide decision-support tools, which have access also to the patient's' historical clinical data, such as their hospital records, analyze the data, alert the patient about actions that should be taken, ask the patient questions, in the case that additional information is needed, and make recommendations regarding lifestyle changes or contacting care providers. All recommendations regarding therapy are transmitted to the patients' care providers. The recommendations are based on evidence- based, state-of-the-art clinical guidelines. During the project we focus on the clinical conditions: atrial fibrillation, gestational diabetes and gestational hypertension and implement the MobiGuide system for these conditions in hospitals in Italy and Spain.The aim of the MobiGuide project is to develop a patient guidance system for patients with chronic illnesses, such as cardiac arrhythmias, diabetes, and high blood pressure. The system accompanies the patients wherever they go and helps them and their care providers in managing their illness, whether they are at home, at work, out and about or travelling abroad on holiday or for business.

The system presents several novelties: (a) delivery of decision-support to patients (via Smartphones) and not only to care providers, (b) personalization of guidelines to the patients' preferences and their personal context as well as the technological state of the MobiGuide system, (c) distribution of decision-support between a backend DSS Server and a mobile DSS operating on a Smartphone, (d) semantically-integrated Personal Health Record (PHR) that integrates data from hospital EMRs, wearable monitoring devices, DSS events, and temporal data abstractions, and (e) intelligent data and process mining algorithms that learn from past care process execution and suggests ways in which clinical guidelines could be improved.

The aim of the REACTION project was to develop an integrated ICT platform that supports improved long term management of diabetes based on wearable, continuous blood glucose monitoring sensors and automated closed-loop delivery of insulin.

The REACTION platform presents an interoperable peer-to-peer communication platform based on Service Oriented Architecture (SoA) using cloud-enabling midddleware. It will feature a Model Driven Application Development environment based on extensive use of dynamic ontologies.

The REACTION platform provides integrated, professional, management and therapy services to diabetes patients in different healthcare regimes across Europe, including 1) professional decision support for in-hospital environments, 2) safety monitoring for dosage and compliance, 3) long term management of outpatients in clinical schemes, 4) care of acute diabetic conditions and 5) support for self-management and life-style changes for diabetic patients.

Loyalty to medical issues for treatment and patient care can be achieved with the new methodology called “gamification”. Using game mechanics and behavior psychology, people using apps are able to upload their information about health and fitness activities and in instances where users grant them permission, download this information and manipulate it to gather a better picture of the person currently signed into the app. Users can see all their information at a glance, as it tracks their fitness activities such as running, walking and cycling from apps and associated wearable technology. Additionally, adapters such as glucometers, ECG devices, blood pressure monitors and even ultrasound have been created to give greater knowledge to users about their overall health, all of which can be stored and accessed by users through the simple interface. Gamification offers the incentives to patients to be engaged and loyal to their treatment and care obligations

NEPHRON+ will provide a major leap forward in Renal Care. It aims at a next generation, integrated solution for personalized treatment and management of patients with chronic renal failure. It presents an ideal solution for continuous dialysis outside the hospital offering better blood clearance, while patients can stay mobile and active in social and economic life. It relies on an ICT-enabled wearable artificial kidney for on-body blood purification. The project’s website is at https://www.nephronplus.eu

Open data are defined as “publicly available data that can be universally and readily accessed, used, and redistributed free of charge”. Clinical care provider quality information, nationwide health service provider directories, databases of the latest medical and scientific knowledge, consumer product data, community health performance information, and government spending data are indicative examples of open data in the health care sector.

Positive impact from developing public policies based on the opening up of data in machine-readable, downloadable and accessible via application programming interfaces ranges from the enhancement of patient care to transparency and accountability in health care decision making, acceleration of scientific research, strengthening of medical innovation and economic growth.

Yet the benefits and costs of open data as a cost-effective and efficient mean for the upgrade of public healthcare systems must be weighed. Based on the international experience (i.e. USA, UK, Sweden, Spain) and relative literature, the presentation will showcase challenges to be addressed, risks to overcome (e.g. privacy, security) and choices to be made so as to ensure a positive impact of open data introduction in public health care systems.

Exhibition Area (Open during the course of the Satellite Event)

Representatives of the following enterprises, start-ups and successful EC funded research projects will exhibit posters and demos on innovative services and products in the field of mobile and wireless healthcare.

 

 

Implantable and ingestible medical devices (IIMDs): optimal-performance-oriented design and evaluation methodology	Dementia Ambient Care: Multi-Sensing Monitoring for Intelligent Remote Management and Decision Support	UroEDU and UROSwords: Continuing Education for Urology
Multilevel assessment on biological effects of radioFrequency electromagnetic waves	FitForAll and VideoGrade: ExerGaming Platforms/Services for Elderly – Active and Healthy Ageing	Responsive and hybrid apps for monitoring and training ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) children
European network for innovative uses of EMFs in biomedical applications (EMF-MED)

Connected Health Workshop (Session Wed. 2-1)

ARCH is at the center of an unparalleled connected health education and research infrastructure that spans a range of activities from gathering, analyzing and interpreting data, through the development of new knowledge and care models to implementing and evaluating change. An industry driven technology center funded by Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland, ARCH provides access to world class clinicians, academics and patient cohorts to explore and evaluate potential connected health solutions for the global market.

ARCH provides a platform for industry working in connected health to build revenue and R&D networks.  We conduct collaborative and bespoke research with industry whilst also conducting a core body of research to build the scientific and economic case for connected health. Recently ARCH has established a global connected health research network, ENJECT, with industry, clinical, policy and academic members across 13 countries (www.arch.ie).

Society faces a major health and social care challenge: demographic changes will raise dramatically the proportion of those over 60 years of age. We will face unmanageable costs associated with chronic diseases such as cardiovascular, respiratory and metabolic disorders, and a global shortage of qualified healthcare professionals. We need new ways of managing health and social care throughout our lifespan.

Through this workshop ARCH aims to develop a network of academics, industry, policy makers and clinicians across Europe with a view to designing fit for purpose Connected Health research projects that can be submitted to Horizon2020 funding calls. The network will include life scientists, health and sports scientists, business and revenue modelers, economists, computer scientists, engineers and social scientists from across Europe and beyond. It is only by creating such end to end networks of expertise that we can carry out the range of research activities that are required to drive real change in the way we manage the health and social care for our population.

The forum is hosted as a workshop style event where participants are split into groups to discuss key challenges in the adoption of Connected Health i.e. Data Management, Organisation Change, Revenue Models etc. These groups will be given a case study and asked to suggest possible solutions to these challenges. The end result from the forum is to build networks for Horizon 20/20 application submissions around the challenges and possible solutions as discussed at the workshop on the day.

IEEE EMB Greece Chapter Best Diploma Thesis Award (Session Tue. 5)

TTC is a web radio show that covers all hot topics and trends in the connected world and features interactive interviews with thought leaders, as well as movers and shakers of the tech industry. It has broadcasted through major events like the Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona and the European Commission‘s eHealth Forum 2014 in Athens, interviewing significant key stake holders. Amongst them they are people from companies like PayPal, Intel, Nokia, Sony, Keynote, Firefox, W3 Consortium, booking.com, Canonical, Opera, ECHAlliance, HL7, Alere, IBM, HiMSS and big organisations like officials from the European Commission, MIT University, Surrey University, FORTH, Demokritos and many more.

More information available at techtalkscentral.com.