International Workshop on Smart wearable and autonomous devices for wound monitoring and therapy
Aim and objectives:
SWAN-iCare is an ambitious project aimed at developing an integrated autonomous device for the monitoring and the personalized management of chronic wounds, mainly diabetic foot ulcers and venous leg ulcers. Most foot and leg ulcers are caused by diabetes and vascular problems respectively but a remarkable number of them are also due to the co- morbidity influence of many other diseases (e.g. kidney disease, congestive heart failure, high blood pressure, inflammatory Bowel disease). More than 10 million people in Europe suffer from chronic wounds, a number which is expected to grow due to the aging of the population.
The core of the project is the fabrication of a conceptually new wearable negative pressure device equipped with Information and Communication Technologies. Such device will allow users to:
- accurately monitor many wound parameters via non-invasive integrated micro-sensors;
- identify infections early;
- provide remotely an innovative personalised two-line therapy via non-invasive micro- actuators to supplement the negative pressure wound therapy.
SWAN-iCare is a novel approach and focuses on the provision of a pioneering two-line therapy at home: a first line based on a negative pressure device and a second line based on the integrated micro-actuators. The physician’s analysis of the collected data will be the basis for the decision and the remote control of the therapy. The closed-loop approach offered by SWAN-iCare project provides unprecedented levels of care, improves patient’s health condition and significantly lowers costs and need for hospitalisation, with obvious advantages for both patients and health care services.
The project follows an iterative validation approach, which includes a series of test sessions in-vitro on human biological samples and in-vivo on humans. A detailed impact analysis and business plan will be conducted towards the successful commercialisation of the project results.
Short CV of the organizers:
Prof. Dimitrios Soudris, NTUA
Prof. Dimitrios Soudris received his Diploma in Electrical Engineering from the University of Patras, Greece, in 1987. He received the Ph.D. Degree in Electrical Engineering, from the University of Patras in 1992. He was working as a Professor in Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace for 13 years since 1995. He is currently working as Ass. Professor in School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Dept. Computer Science of National Technical University of Athens, Greece. His research interests include embedded systems design, low power VLSI design and reconfigurable architectures. He has published more than 300 papers in international journals and conferences. Also, he is coauthor/coeditor in six books of Kluwer and Springer. He is leader and principal investigator in numerous research projects funded from the Greek Government and Industry, European Space Agency as well as the European Commission (ESPRIT II-III-IV and 5th & 7th IST). He has served as General Chair and Program Chair for PATMOS 99 and 2000, respectively, and General Chair of IFIP-VLSI-SOC 2008. Also, he received an award from INTEL and IBM for the EU project LPGD 25256 and awards in ASP-DAC 05 and VLSI 05 for EU AMDREL project IST-2001-34379 two HiPEAC awards. He is a member of the IEEE, the VLSI Systems and Applications Technical Committee of IEEE CAS and the ACM.
MD, PhD Marco Romanelli
Educational history with dates:
Undergraduate: 1979 Liceo Classico G. Gallilei, Pisa.
Graduate: 1987 University of Pisa, School of Medicine, 110/110 Summa cum Laude, MD.
Post-Graduate: 1989-1991 Ospedale Santa Chiara, University of Pisa, residency in dermatology and venereology. 1992-1994 PhD degree in Experimental dermatology, University of Naples – Federico II, Naples, Italy.
Work history with dates: 1995- present: Consultant Dermatologist at the Department of Dermatology, University of Pisa, Italy Areas of research interests: Chronic wounds, tissue engineering, non invasive assessment of cutaneous tissue repair. Marco Romanelli has extensive clinical experience of managing patients with leg ulceration. He is actually responsible for the Critical Wounds Clinic inside the University Hospital of Pisa. He has coordinated the European Pressure Ulcers prevalence project in Italy this year, which has put together data from over 25 national hospitals.
Research institute activities (in general): The research activities include the development of biomaterials to be used on acute and chronic wounds, the implementation of different scaffolds for tissue engineering, the elaboration of a prototype to non-invasively assess acute and chronic wounds. The Wound Healing Group inside the department is devoted to educational activities in wound care for the hospital staff. This includes the development and implementation of guidelines and epidemiological research activities.
Contact details of the organizers:
Dimitrios Soudris, National Technical University of Athens
9, Iroon Polytechniou Str., 15780 Zografos, Athens Greece
Email: [email protected]
Marco Romanelli, Clinica Dermatologica,
Universita’ Degli Studi di Pisa Via Roma 67, I-56126, Pisa, Italy
Email: [email protected]
