The Innovation Potential of Miniaturised Smart Systems in Healthcare and Wellbeing: The EC Funding Programs Experience and H2020's Shift Paradigm
Andreas Lymberis, PhD, Research Program Officer, European Commission, Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG Connect), Components, B-1049 Brussels, Belgium.
Smart systems are multifunctional miniaturised systems, resulting from heterogeneous integration of advanced technologies e.g. micro & nano electronics, micro-mechanic, magnetic, photonic, micro-fluidic, bio/chemical and/or microwave technologies. The functions embedded in smart systems include sensing, processing, storing, actuating, energy generation and management and communicating, to other smart systems, to the network or to the user. Research and development at the interface of smart micro-nano systems and biology combining information and communication technologies, has been greatly supported in the last decade, by Europe and other world regions, opening new opportunities for healthcare delivery and quality of life (e.g. human performance monitoring, point of care diagnostic systems, smart active implants, drug delivery and minimally invasive robotic surgery). This is also the case for other ICT – based technological developments like wearable systems & devices that are flexible and conformable to the human body, enabling better access to personal services e.g. tele-assistance, health monitoring, rehabilitation & therapy, comfort & safety, training, entertainment and adaptive smart environments. However, despite a series of convincing proof of concepts and prototype working systems, the technology transfer to the market is relatively low and the impact of the R&D investment is, from societal and economic points of view, weak. The recently started new EC framework program for research and Innovation, Horizon 2020, offer the possibility to address the innovation challenges of smart miniaturised systems in more comprehensive way, covering the full value chain from idea to deployment, involving all key actors to exploit and leverage new solutions & markets and drive the change.
Andreas Lymberis is a physicist, post-graduated with a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering and sciences (1990, Paris, France). He worked for more than 20 years as researcher/engineer and R&D manager in biomedical technology and health telematics. In 1999 he joined the European Commission (Brussels, Belgium) as a scientific officer in eHealth where he initiated R&D activities on “smart wearable health systems and biomedical clothing”. Since 2004 he is research program officer first in microsystems and recently in electronic components and systems. He is member of the EC team in charge of the drafting and monitoring the EU research, development & innovation programs for ICT and coordinates two thematic areas: "micro-nano-bio systems (MNBS)" and "e-textile & wearable" systems. He is Senior IEEE Member and chaired the IEEE-EMBS Technical Committee on Wearable Biomedical Sensors and Systems (2004-2007). He published over 30 articles in journals and books and (co) edited 2 books on wearable health systems.
Innovation Opportunities in Patient Care
Richard Kemkers, Philips Research Eindhoven, Head of the Department "Patient Care Solutions".
Challenges in Patient Care in a professional healthcare environment are numerous: increasing financial pressures hamper proper delivery of healthcare to patients, decreasing staff-patient ratios throughout the hospital, and a growing number of patients in the developing world who will need access to care are just a few examples. These challenges present opportunities for innovation that we aim to address at Philips Research. In this presentation a number of Philips' innovation focal areas and specific project examples will be discussed to illustrate how innovation can tackle these significant issues.
Short Bio:
Richard, a Dutch native, started his career at Philips Healthcare and has worked in various positions for their Imaging Systems Business. While initially working in the Netherlands for the interventional X-ray unit focusing on developing clinical applications and building a network with academic hospitals, he later relocated to the U.S. and moved on to the Ultrasound business in both R&D and Business Development roles. Currently he is leading the Department "Patient Care & Measurement" in Philips Research.
mHealth, Issues at Stake
Gisele Roesems-Kerremans, Deputy Head of Unit of the "(ICT for) Health and Wellbeing" unit within DG CONNECT, the Communications Networks, Content and Technology DG.
mHealth has the potential to play a key role in transforming our lives for the better – yet it is imperative to ensure that the technology is safe and secure for use by citizens. Further clarification is needed on the applicable legal framework to mHealth and questions are raised about the use of the data collected through mHealth applications by individuals and medical professionals and whether or not and how they will be integrated in healthcare systems. The challenges include ensuring that the market for health and wellbeing apps meets the citizen's demands for quality and transparency.
In the European Commission's eHealth Action Plan 2012-2020, current and potential benefits of mHealth apps, and potential associated risks were recognised and a Green paper on mHealth was announced with the objective to launch a broad-scale consultation process with stakeholders on existing barriers and issues related to mHealth deployment and to help identify the right way forward. This consultation ended July 3rd, 2014. A report on received responses will be presented upon which basis the Commission might take the necessary steps at EU level to support mHealth deployment.
Short Bio:
Gisele Roesems-Kerremans is Deputising Head of Unit of the "(ICT for) Health and Wellbeing" unit within DG CONNECT, the Communications Networks, Content and Technology DG. She joined the European Commission in 1994 as a Scientific officer in the domain of Software technologies in the ICT research programme and then moved on to the areas Micro/Nanosystems and Nanoelectronics. She studied Civil Engineering / Computer sciences at the University of Leuven (Belgium) and started her career as a system engineer in the telecommunication sector and later in the automotive industry.
Advances and Challenges in Bioelectromagnetics for Implantable Devices and Neurostimulation: Current and Future Applications
Gianluca Lazzi, Professor and Department Chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of Utah, USA
Over the past decade, we have witnessed significant changes in the area of bioelectromagnetics, primarily spearheaded by new opportunities that implantable devices, and medical applications in general, have offered. In this talk we will discuss recent advances in bioelectromagnetics with particular emphasis on the application to the development of an artificial retina to restore partial vision to the blind, hippocampus implants, and neurostimulators in general. We will discuss the relevance of bioelectromagnetic research to the modeling of neural stimulation, the development of implantable antennas and telemetry systems, novel neurostimuators, flexible electronics for implants, and the electromagnetic safety assessment of implantable devices. Future opportunities and research efforts will also be discussed.
Short Bio:
Gianluca Lazzi is a USTAR Professor and Department Chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of Utah. Prior to his appointment at the University of Utah, he was a Professor from 2006 to 2009, an Associate Professor from 2003 to 2006, and an Assistant Professor from 1999 to 2003 with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, North Carolina State University (NCSU), Raleigh. He has authored or coauthored over 190 international journal papers or conference presentations on implantable devices, neurostimulation, medical applications of electromagnetics, antenna design, FDTD modeling, dosimetry, and bioelectromagnetics. Dr. Lazzi was the Chair of Commission K (Electromagnetics in Biology and Medicine) from 2006 to 2008 and a Member-at-Large of the U.S. National Committee of the International Union of Radio Science (URSI) from 2009 to 2011. In 2009, he was the Technical Program Committee Chair of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation International Symposium and URSI meeting in Charleston, SC. He was an Associate Editor for IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters from 2001 to 2007 and served as a Guest Editor for the Special Issue on Biological Effects and Medical Applications of RF/Microwaves of the IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques in 2004. He is currently a member of the Editorial Board of the Proceedings of the IEEE, the Chair of the IEEE Sensors Council Fellow Committee, and the Chair of the Publications Committee of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society. He was the Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters from 2008 to 2013. He is a Fellow of the IEEE for "contributions to bioelectromagnetics and implantable devices” and a Fellow of the AIMBE for "Contributions to the Field of Bioelectromagnetics and Design of Bioelectrical Implantable Devices." He was the recipient of the 1996 Curtis Carl Johnson Memorial Award for the best student paper presented at the 18th Annual Technical Meeting of the Bioelectromagnetics Society (BEMS), a 1996 URSI Young Scientist Award, a 2001 Whitaker Foundation Biomedical Engineering Grant for Young Investigators, a 2001 National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award, a 2003 NCSU Outstanding Teacher Award, the 2003 NCSU Alumni Outstanding Teacher Award, the 2003 ALCOA Foundation Engineering Research Award, the 2006 H. A. Wheeler Award from the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society for the best application paper published in the IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation in 2005, a 2008 Best Paper Award at the IEEE GLOBECOM conference, the 2009 ALCOA Foundation Distinguished Engineering Research Award, a 2009 R&D 100 Award, and the 2009 Editor’s Choice Award from R&D Magazine for the Artificial Retina Project. He is currently the principal investigator of a interdisciplinary and multi-institution, NIH supported, research effort on “Multiscale Modeling for Neural Excitation.” He has been working for nearly 15 years on several research aspects toward the development of an artificial retina to restore partial vision to the blind; in this project, he has been a co-investigator of a DOE sponsored center, which involved 3 universities, 5 national laboratories, and one company.
Satellite Event Keynote Lecture:
Biomedical Big Data Analytics for Patient-Centric and Outcome-Driven Health Care
May D. Wang, Associate Professor, Kavli Fellow, Georgia Research Alliance Distinguished Cancer Scholar, Director of Biocomputing and Bioinformatics Core in Emory-Georgia Tech Cancer Nanotechnology Center, Co-Director of Georgia-Tech Center of Bio-Imaging Mass Spectrometry.
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.
Short Bio:
May D. Wang, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Winship Institute, Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences, and Institute for People and Technology at Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, USA. She is a Kavli Fellow, a Georgia Research Alliance Distinguished Cancer Scholar, Biocomputing and Bioinformatics Core Director in Emory-Georgia-Tech Cancer Nanotechnology Center, and Co-Director of Georgia-Tech Center of Bio-Imaging Mass Spectrometry.
Prof. Wang’s research is in Biomedical Big Data analytics with a focus on Biomedical and Health Informatics (BHI) for Personalized and Predictive Health. Her research includes high throughput NGS and -omic data mining to identify clinical biomarkers, bionanoinformatics, pathological imaging informatics to assist clinical diagnosis, critical and chronic care health informatics for evidence-based decision making, and predictive systems modeling to improve health outcome. Prof. Wang published 160+ peer-reviewed articles in BHI. She is the corresponding/co-corresponding author for articles published in Journal of American Medical Informatics Association, Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics, Briefings in Bioinformatics, BMC Bioinformatics, Journal of Pathology Informatics, IEEE/ACM Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Proceedings of The IEEE, IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine, BMC Medical Imaging, Annals of BME, Trends in Biotechnology, Nature Protocols, Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, Annual Review of Medicine, Circulation Genetics, and Nanomedicine etc. She has led RNA-data analysis investigation within FDA-led Sequencing Consortium (SEQC). Her past bioinformatics systems were certified by NIH/National Cancer Informatics Program as silver-level compatible (e.g. omniBiomarker). Dr. Wang has devoted to training young generation of data scientists and engineers, and she received Georgia-Tech’s Outstanding Faculty Mentor for Undergraduate Research Award in 2005.
Currently, Prof. Wang serves as Senior Editor for IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics (J-BHI), Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering (TBME), and Emerging Area Editor for Proceedings of National Academy of Science (PNAS). She also serves as IEEE EMBS Biomedical and Health Informatics Technical Committee Chair, and IEEE EMBS Special Topic Conference on Biomedical and Health Informatics Steering Committee Chair. She is an IEEE-EMBS 2014-2015 Distinguished Lecturer, and has recently been elected as an EMBS Administrative Committee Officer representing North America.
