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Digital health and Artificial Intelligence: the Trentino challenge

20 April 2023 By

Press conference today with councillors Segnana and Spinelli, Fbk secretary general Simoni and Trento Province Healthcare System director Mariotti

The project entitled “Digital Health and Artificial Intelligence – tools for bringing the Health Service closer to citizens and for the development of the provincial system” presented In the press room of the Trento Province Building this morning were Health, Social Policy, Disability and Family Councillors Stefania Segnana and Economic Development, Research and Labor Councillor Achille Spinelli, with Health Department Director General Giancarlo Ruscitti, Provincial Health Services Authority Health Director Giuliano Mariotti and FBK Secretary General Andrea Simoni, with press office chief Giampaolo Pedrotti moderating.
The goal of the initiative, which was funded last December by the provincial government with about 817,000 euros, is twofold: to validate new ways in which health care is organized to offer innovative services to patients, and to contribute to the advancement of scientific and technological knowledge, including through artificial intelligence tools to support health care professionals in clinical practice.

The areas of specialized experimentation involved are different: the remote care and monitoring of chronic heart patients, screening for the early diagnosis of eye problems in the context of ophthalmology, diabetes and pediatrics, prevention, favoring the adoption of correct lifestyles, and the physical and psychological well-being of pregnant women and their families.
“”New technologies and digital technologies represent critical levers to give momentum to a health care system that, Covid reminded us, needs to evolve and equip itself with new organizational models and professional skills that welcome innovation,” comments Councillor Stefania Segnana.Certainly telemedicine and artificial intelligence can be applied to and be of great help both in clinical settings, I’m thinking for example of the potential in community care and in the provision of services and home care, as well as in those of ‘governance’ and planning, where accurate management of data flows with new technologies can provide useful and strategic information to the Province Healthcare System in order to manage the various services and resources effectively and efficiently.”
With this project, Trentino proves to be, once more, a laboratory of excellence for the research and development of innovative technologies that lead to intelligent solutions for the well-being of citizens, said Councillor Achille Spinelli. “Artificial intelligence, as an enabling technology with cross-cutting applications to the different local strategic sectors, will also allow great strides to be made in the development of innovative health services, ensuring ever greater efficiency, accuracy and functionality of the provincial health system, in conjunction with the world of research and innovation.”
Started in January of this year, the project has a duration of 24 months and will end in December 2024.
””The initiative is part of the broader provincial health care reorganization strategy,” explained Giancarlo Ruscitti,
“in line with the PNRR principles and actions, and implementing DM 77, which provides for the implementation of new models of community health care that should be increasingly closer to people, including by using new technologies and telemedicine.”When it comes to digital health, artificial intelligence and tools to bring the Health Service closer to citizens, research has a dominant role. All the more so if it is close to physicians and their needs and if it involves citizens so that they themselves become innovators and experimenters of evolutions,” commented Andrea Simoni, FBK secretary general. Fondazione Bruno Kessler has been involved in research on these issues for years and is known in Italy and abroad for its expertise, and has found recognition even within the planning of the national PNRR. In FBK we have a dedicated center, the Digital Health and Wellbeing Center, which, thanks to TrentinoSalute4.0, is directly involved in the project organization. We have the opportunity to study, further and do research also on different types of artificial intelligence (diagnostic, predictive, and interactive AI) and the opportunity to foster the adoption of innovative solutions by the provincial health system, in the Trentino area, in sectors such as cardiology, ophthalmology, pediatrics, diabetology, and the first 1000 days of life.
“”We are in the presence of an epidemiological situation that sees an increasingly elderly population in Trentino with a simultaneous increase in chronic diseases.  A scenario that requires organizational models that adopt new ways of delivering health services to ensure equity and proximity in access to care. In this context, the digital health and artificial intelligence project,” emphasized Apss health director Giuliano Mariotti, “will provide support in the delivery of health services, to all professionals working in local communities and in the hospital, combined with the active co-participation of citizens in the management of their own health. The strong synergy between the actors of the Trentino public and research system will allow us to implement new technologies to foster innovative ways of taking care of patients in addition to supporting research activities through the use of predictive models and artificial intelligence.”

(ml, at, rc)

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Marzia Lucianer: Marzia Lucianer, giornalista scientifica, responsabile Press Office and Digital Communication di TrentinoSalute4.0