PA Forum Award 2024 in the Data-driven Health category and Artificial Intelligence Special Award for the system developed by DII scientists in collaboration with AOUP and the Regional Health Agency
The intelligent system for telemonitoring patients with heart failure was awarded at the Health Forum 2024 with a double recognition: PA Forum Award 2024 in the Data-driven Health category and the Artificial Intelligence Special Award. The ceremony took place on October 24, 2024 in Rome. The Forum, promoted by the DIGITAL360 Group, is designed to highlight the best experiences that look to the future of health and healthcare, enhancing projects based on cutting-edge technologies or capable of implementing innovative models of assistance and care.
The telemonitoring system developed in Pisa is called Heart Failure Medical Expert System (HF-MES), and had already been awarded at the international conference IEEE ISMICT 2024 (International Symposium on Medical Information and Communication Technology (ISMICT)). The research was conducted as part of the project Bando Ricerca Toscana AIRTELTE Covid 19 by the Department of Information Engineering of the University of Pisa, the University Hospital of Pisa and the Regional Health Agency.
“The Heart Failure Medical Expert System (HF-MES) solution - explains Luca Fanucci, professor of electronics at the Department of Information Engineering of the University of Pisa - uses Artificial Intelligence techniques to offer an expert system that supports doctors in activating and managing telemonitoring pathways for patients with heart failure. The system is able to replicate the decision-making process of an expert doctor, helping in the selection of the initial monitoring plan and subsequent adjustments, based on the clinical and anamnestic information of the subject and the severity of the disease assessed through the data received from the patient (symptoms and vital signs). The solution, designed to be integrated into existing telemonitoring platforms, is intended for use in general and/or outpatient medicine, by family doctors or hospital specialists involved in the treatment of acute cardio-respiratory diseases that involve the use of patient telemonitoring tools”.
“The system - adds Stefano Masi, of the Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Pisana - has been subjected to clinical trials, demonstrating a high degree of accuracy, in addition to its reliability and technological feasibility. These characteristics make it an effective support tool for the implementation of personalized care pathways capable of promoting early interventions based on clinical evidence that can stop the evolution towards severe disease conditions requiring hospitalization”.
Fundamental to the success of the project was the multidisciplinary team that involved engineers (Luca Fanucci, Alessio Bechini, Massimiliano Donati and Martina Olivelli) together with doctors (Stefano Masi, Annamaria Vianello and Ilaria Petrucci) and statisticians (Paolo Francesconi and Elisa Gualdani).
