healthcare – Progress in Research

Digital Care: emerging care models, new players and future relationships

Posted on 05/07/202306/08/2024 by Erik Franco

On Wednesday 28 June, the results of the research project Cura Digitale (Digital Care), conducted by D\Tank, the think tank of the Department of Design of Politecnico di Milano, were presented at the Gianfranco Ferré Research Centre.

The pandemic has accelerated digitisation processes in the healthcare sector, prompting users to make greater use of online services, for instance to keep specific problems under control (diabetes, heart disease, insomnia, etc.) or to adopt a healthier, more balanced lifestyle.

A group of researchers from the Department of Design investigated the topic of Digital Care through the four main tools – research of scientific articles, exploration of patents, user analysis and discussion with decision-makers – with the aim of outlining a shared trajectory towards equitable, accessible and inclusive digital care.

Three relevant themes emerged from the research – Distributed Care, Self-Care and Health Booster Technologies – which can be considered as three different areas of design. Each area has been declined to the Present, the Possible Future and the Alternative Present to identify convergences and references useful for the realisation of strategies, products, services and places of Digital Care.

Cura Digitale on the D\Tank website

TROPHY project kicks off

Posted on 28/09/202206/08/2024 by Erik Franco

Activities related to the TROPHY (ulTRafast hOlograPHic FT-IR microscopY) project have officially started. TROPHY is a research project, funded by the European Commission under the Horizon Europe programme, which aims to develop a novel label-free vibrational microscopy approach for cancer diagnosis.

Cancer diagnosis is traditionally done on intraoperative frozen tissue sections by post-surgical histopathologic analysis and, in selected cases, by elaborated and time-consuming molecular diagnosis. The analysis of the biopsy is performed through the staining of the tissue and the evaluation of the morphology of its cells under an optical microscope. This approach is neither fast nor quantitative, has an intrinsic variability in the interpretation depending on the experience of the histopathologist, and provides limited molecular information.

The microscope developed thanks to the TROPHY project will image molecular biomarkers with unprecedented speed and chemical selectivity for a rapid, precise, and non-biased tumor analysis. To this purpose, it will blend in a unique fashion elements of several microscopies developed in the past decades, namely photo-thermal infrared, Fourier transform infrared and Digital Holography Microscopy, bringing them to the unprecedented ultrafast timescale. It will also integrate Artificial Intelligence to produce fast results and assist in the tumour grading process even during surgery.

This microscope will be used to assist healthcare professionals during tumor biopsy diagnostics, provide an accurate diagnosis for curative oncosurgery, guarantee complete resection during intervention, determine the best therapeutic approach tailored to the patient, and identify resistant tumor clones under targeted therapy, paving the way for continual precision medicine in cancer.

The project is coordinated by the Politecnico di Milano with Prof. Marco Marangoni from the Department of Physics as scientific coordinator. The other project partners are Fundacio Institut de Ciences Fotoniques (ICFO, Spain), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR, Italy), Lyncee Tec SA (LT, Switzerland), Universtaetsklinikum Jena (JUH, Germany), University of Exeter (UNEXE, UK), University of Cambridge (UCAM, UK).

How can we support healthcare workers to avoid burnout?

Posted on 22/02/202206/08/2024 by Erik Franco

By placing enormous pressure on healthcare workers, the COVID-19 pandemic has put doctors, nurses and hospital staff at the risk of developing psychological problems (burnout, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder).

The Politecnico di Milano, in collaboration with the psychologists at the Università degli Studi di Milano and the Istituti Clinici Maugeri, has carried out in-dept analysis of the answers given in a questionnaire handed out to Italian healthcare workers during the first wave of the pandemic (April-May 2020).

The data gathered, regarding socio-demographics, lifestyle, working conditions, COVID-19-related health conditions and psychological indicators, were subsequently analysed using innovative data science methods that enabled different risk profiles to be associated with the various subgroups into which the sample was divided.

Published in the prestigious Journal of Biomedical Informatics, this study forms a basis for the implementation of self-diagnosis apps specifically for healthcare workers subjected to high-risk conditions that allow personalised psychological measures to be taken during pandemic situations.

Enrico Caiani and Emanuele Tauro, Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering at Politecnico di Milano, are two of the authors of this article.

JRP healthcare infrastructures up for the design of hospitals 4.0

Posted on 08/02/202206/08/2024 by Erik Franco

What will the hospital of the future look like?

The Joint Research Platform Healthcare Infrastructures has been set up to answer this question, a platform of excellence for innovation led by Politecnico di Milano – Department of Architecture, Built Environment and Construction Engineering (Design & Health Lab) and Fondazione Politecnico di Milano. It is aimed at companies and institutions in the healthcare sector for the development and testing of innovative research and infrastructure projects.

Mario Cucinella Architects, Philips, Politecnica Ingegneria e Architettura, Eredi Rossini Domenico, Siemens SpA, and Tecnicaer Engineering are the companies that have joined the platform and will work in synergy with the Politecnico, in particular to develop a sustainable model of “user-centred” healthcare, capable of going beyond the exclusively hospital-centric perspective.

User-centred hospitals have been shown to improve patient and healthcare operator satisfaction, increase productivity, lower management costs, help reduce the risk of falls by 30%, care-related infections by 35%, staff turnover due to burnout by 30%, adverse events by 15%, and average length of stay by 10%.

The new Hospital 4.0 will be designed by developing, validating and testing design models for the different functional areas of the hospital (Surgery and Critical Patient, Diagnostics, Emergency, Outpatients, Inpatients, General, Logistic and Technical Services) or strategic characteristics (flexibility, resilience to maxi emergencies, sustainability).

The ambition of the JRP Healthcare Infrastructures is to define the new paradigms for the Hospital of the Future. It ‘s the first example in Italy for which the world of research, business and institutions activate a joint working table that aims to address the social, epidemiological and technological challenges related to innovative and sustainable healthcare infrastructures. The JRP is a new multidisciplinary initiative by Politecnico di Milano that will generate multiple frontier actions with important spin-offs for the world of healthcare.
Stefano Capolongo, Professor of Hospital Design at Politecnico di Milano and Scientific Coordinator for this initiative.

The JRP is a new multidisciplinary initiative by Politecnico di Milano that will generate multiple frontier actions with important spin-offs for the world of healthcare

On a national level, current guidelines all focus on investing in healthcare by creating people-centred systems. With JRP Healthcare Infrasctractures we promote a new vision of Hospital 4.0 and best practices in healthcare. As a foundation, we know that, in order to create valuable services for citizens, it is essential to understand the needs of society through dialogue with all stakeholders and to connect the industry sector with that of academia and the institutions. With this project we bring together major players in the healthcare sector, academia and the institutions in order to share the direction of development in healthcare infrastructures
Andrea Sianesi, President of Fondazione Politecnico di Milano.

Healthcare: 10 proposals for the effective implementation of the PNRR [NRP: National Recovery and Resilience Plan]

Posted on 01/06/202128/09/2021 by admin

Ten operational proposals and three enabling factors to successfully put the PNRR’s Health Mission into practice and support the SSN [National Health Service], which has been severely affected by the pandemic and which has highlighted critical points and areas for improvement. This, in brief, is the work of a group of scholars in economics, management and health policy from six universities: Università Bocconi, Politecnico di Milano, Università Cattolica, Università di Torino, Università Tor Vergata and Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna.

“The PNRR is a high-visibility document outlining an allocation of significant investment resources for the SSN that must deliver value within five years. The implementation process has just begun,” stresses Francesco Longo of Bocconi University, “and it will last five years: a short time in which it is necessary to define the detailed design for each measure, build regional plans and implement policies in the individual local health authorities.”

“Interventions in the National Health Service, in addition to improving its effectiveness and efficiency, will play a decisive role in reducing inequality of access to the health system,” explains Giuseppe Costa, of the University of Turin. “The success of the PNRR will also be measured by its social impact, and not only its economic impact”.

The ten proposals were presented and discussed on 28 May in a webinar organised by AIES, the Italian Association of Health Economics, open to all National Health Service stakeholders. The meeting was also attended by Stefano Lorusso, Head of the Technical Secretariat of the Minister of Health.

“We have drawn up implementation proposals concerning the governance and allocation of PNRR funds,” explains Federico Spandonaro of the University of Tor Vergata, “on the autonomy and constraints for the regions and their companies, on the development of the enabling factors and on the organisational and operational design of the various PNRR lines of action.”

In particular, the research group identified a number of operational proposals. “Through targeted planning and continuous and timely monitoring of outcomes,” says Americo Cicchetti, of Università Cattolica, “we must be able to accomplish the much-needed healthcare reform outlined in the PNRR”.

The ten priority areas of intervention identified by the research team are:

strengthening General Medicine and developing its infrastructure
enhancing the provision of care for chronic conditions
streamlining the local outpatient network
ensuring self-sufficiency at home in an integrated way with the welfare system
standardising the equipment of intermediate structures between regions
planning and implementing a change in the skill mix of doctors and health professions
reforming the public health system by adopting a ‘one health’ approach to health
promoting clinical expertise in the small hospital network
renovating the infrastructure of large hospitals by switching their logistics and increasing their flexibility and sustainability
modernising the technology stock of hospitals and making them more efficient

“The role of the Regions will be fundamental in the implementation of the PNRR,” explains Milena Vainieri, of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna. “This is why it is crucial to implement a Technical Support Instrument on the model of the Next Generation EU to support the design and implementation of reforms in the Member States. In other words, a fund must be made available to the regions to acquire skills for all phases of the projects.

However, the future of the NHS also depends on the grounding of three strategic enablers: research and innovation, digital transformation and capacity building. “However, success cannot be taken for granted,” says Cristina Masella of the Politecnico di Milano, “as it requires a great deal of cohesion of purpose, to be achieved through a strong focus on creating convergence and institutional cooperation: our work aims precisely at facilitating a continuous dialogue between all parties.”

The members of the working group

Eugenio Anessi Pessina (Università Cattolica), Amelia Compagni (Università Bocconi), Giuseppe Costa (Università di Torino), Americo Cicchetti (Università Cattolica), Giovanni Fattore (Università Bocconi), Francesco Longo (Università Bocconi), Cristina Masella (Politecnico di Milano), Sabina Nuti (Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna), Federico Spandonaro (Università Tor Vergata), Daniela D’Angela (Università Tor Vergata), Barbara Polistena (Università Tor Vergata), Milena Vainieri (Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna), Federico Vola (Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna), Michela Bobini (Università Bocconi), Francesca Meda (Università Bocconi), Claudio Buongiorno Sottoriva (Università Bocconi).