TreC_DigitalHealthAndWellbeing_DeStefano

    Digital Health

    The scientific research of excellence produced at FBK is in the service of healthcare based on the 4P medicine paradigm (Predictive, Preventive, Personalized, Participatory) and informed by the principles of equity and citizens empowerment.

    FBK’s goal is to have the maximum impact on the scientific community and on the health of citizens.

    To do this, we combine Computer Science and AI for health techniques and methodologies, advanced knowledge of infectious disease epidemiology, mathematical and computational models, high skills for the training of doctors of the future.

    Strenghts

    To have a significant impact on the scientific community, the health system and the
    market, FBK’s strengths are:

    Similarly, the development of methods – mainly based on mathematical and computational modeling – can provide information to decision makers in order to improve preparedness, prevention and response to health emergencies caused by communicable diseases.

    Technology

    • Digital Medicine platforms   : telehealth systems, telemedicine, digital medical records with multi-device access
    • Computational epidemiology : the Health Emergencies center aims to develop basic epidemiological research to increase knowledge of the main factors that regulate the transmission of infectious diseases, developing methods – mainly based on mathematical and computational modeling – to provide information to decision makers in order to improve preparedness, prevention and response to health emergencies caused by communicable diseases.
    • Virtual Reality:    the research activity in this area will allow to design, test and validate the use of Virtual Reality for the management of stressful situations, to support senior citizens with mild dementia, to manage anxiety through immersion in relaxing environments and to accompany cancer patients as they prepare for chemotherapy sessions.
    • Virtual Coaching (persuasive technology): FBK is conducting research in the field of virtual coaching systems to support citizens in maintaining and improving their health conditions. The approach is to provide citizens with a persuasive virtual partner who operates in a similar way to a human coach helping them achieve their health goals.
    • Data Science for Health: it is an emerging discipline that integrates aspects of life sciences, mathematics, statistics and computer science. In our vision, the management, analysis and integration of large amounts of clinical and health data are key factors in addressing crucial challenges for improving the quality of public health.
    • Technologies for human language processing: with applications both within documents and in medical and biomedical domains.
    • Technologies for “conversational agents“: AI-based conversational agents, commonly referred to as chatbots, are increasingly widespread and, for some time now, have also made it into Healthcare. FBK chatbots are not just based on an ecosystem of rules and decision trees but are built on Natural Language Processing platforms that exploit AI, Machine Learning and Deep Learning skills.

    Projects

    • Virtual coaching for Digital Therapeutics: digital therapeutics is the technology that offers therapeutic interventions guided by high quality software programs. These programs are based on scientific evidence obtained through rigorous and confirmatory clinical trials with the aim of preventing, managing or treating a broad spectrum of physical, mental and behavioral conditions. These are treatment interventions capable of improving clinical outcomes on a par with pharmacological treatment. They can take the form of apps, video games, websites, or wearable devices.
    • AI in Health: data driven predictive models for precision medicine. The Center Units, in collaboration with national and international institutes and hospitals, create complete analysis environments, from the pre-processing of data to the implementation of the models and their application on cloud computing structures also equipped with GPUs. The modeling techniques range from ML/DL models for classification, selection and variable importance problems for the interpretability of the models themselves up to dimensionality reduction procedures. Particular attention is dedicated to ensuring analysis reproducibility and to avoiding undesirable overestimation effects such as data leakage. Input data includes clinical data, high-throughput omics data and biomedical image data, in radiology, neuroradiology and pathological anatomy.
    • TreC +: app and online portal (trec.trentinosalute.net) that allow citizens residing or domiciled in the Autonomous Provinceof Trento to have a single point of access to the health services of the APSS. With TreC+ users can access their Electronic Health Records to view online information and documents concerning their health, as well as reports, drug prescriptions, specialist referrals, schedule exams and manage other TreC accounts (of children or people they care for).
    • FBK for health: higher education and training projects. Since 2021, FBK per health has been responsible for the management of the School for specific training in General Medicine in Trento.
    • Virtual coaching per le Terapie Digitali: le terapie digitali sono quelle tecnologie che offrono interventi terapeutici guidati da programmi software di alta qualità. Questi programmi sono basati su evidenza scientifica ottenuta attraverso una sperimentazione clinica rigorosa e confermatoria allo scopo di prevenire, di gestire o di trattare un ampio spettro di condizioni fisiche, mentali e comportamentali. Si tratta di interventi curativi capaci di migliorare risultati clinici al pari di un trattamento farmacologico. Possono assumere la forma di app, videogiochi, siti web o dispositivi indossabili.
    • AI in Health: data driven predictive models for precision medicine. Le Unità del Centro, in collaborazione con istituti e ospedali nazionali e internazionali, realizzano ambienti di analisi completi, dal pre-processamento dei dati all’implementazione dei modelli e alla loro applicazione su strutture di calcolo in cloud dotate anche di GPU. Le tecniche modellistiche spaziano da modelli di ML/DL per problemi di classificazione, selezione e importanza delle variabili per l’interpretabilità dei modelli stessi fino a procedure di riduzione di dimensionalità. Particolare attenzione è dedicata al garantire la riproducibilità delle analisi e ad evitare effetti indesiderati di sovrastima quali per esempio la data leakage. I dati in ingresso includono dati clinici, dati omici ad alta processività e dati di immagini biomediche, sia in radiologia, che in neuroradiologia e in anatomia patologica.
    • TreC+: app e portale online (trec.trentinosalute.net) che consentono ai cittadini residenti o domiciliati nella Provincia autonoma di Trento di avere un unico punto di accesso ai servizi sanitari dell’APSS. Con TreC+ si può accedere al proprio Fascicolo Sanitario Elettronico per consultare online informazioni e documenti che riguardano la propria salute, e visualizzare referti, ricette farmaceutiche, prescrizioni specialistiche, prenotare esami e gestire altre TreC (dei figli o di persone di cui ci si prende cura).
    • FBK per la salute: alta formazione e progetti formativi. Dal 2021 FBK per la salute è responsabile della gestione della Scuola di formazione specifica in Medicina generale di Trento.