The theme of Health
What are the common territorial challenges that will be faced by the project?
The issue of health is a very delicate issue that has always been under the lens of government institutions, first of all the Ministry of Health. The Ministry's objective is to guarantee complete and free health care to all citizens residing in the respective territory, financed by social security contributions. The achievement of this objective is linked to careful financial and organizational management, which often does not match the resources available to health facilities.
In fact, in recent years the occupancy rate of the beds has increased, but there is not as much evidence of a quantitative adjustment of the nursing staff. For these reasons, there is an increasing number of patients being cared for by each nurse, which translates into a decline in the standard of care. Furthermore, the equipment made available by the departments, both Italian and Maltese, are not adequate to meet these needs.
In fact, if the availability of a traditional monitoring system were to be increased, the human resources available would not be adequate for the traditional detection of vital parameters and the timely reporting of their deterioration. Therefore, a targeted intervention aimed at improving quality is necessary. care of those hospitalized patients who need continuous monitoring and adequate care.
In this context, the project partnership makes its skills available through synergy and joint collaboration in order to achieve the project objectives. In fact, the Policlinico Vittorio Emanuele University Hospital and the University of Malta will make their knowledge and structures available to deal with the theme of care in terms of clinical monitoring, with the opportunity to enrich their skills through close collaboration. of project. On the other hand, the University of Catania will use its knowledge and experience to develop technologically advanced systems in the electronics and information technology sector.
The solution
How does the project address these territorial challenges and / or common opportunities and what is the novelty in the approach adopted by the project?
The project proposes an innovative solution to ensure adequate health care for hospitalized patients without burdening the economies of care facilities. In fact, the goal of the project is to create a technologically advanced system capable of providing high standards of care with the same human resources while increasing their professional skills. The project capitalizes on the knowledge deriving from the method used to date, the EWS (Early Warning Score), overcoming those limits imposed by the shortage of personnel that reduce welfare performance.
In fact, it is planned to create an innovative monitoring system that allows to acquire, in real time, the vital parameters of patients through the use of a peripheral sensory system. The data will be sent to a central station equipped with a dedicated computer, on which a mathematical model will be implemented which, by crossing them and timing them, will provide interpretative elements on the clinical status of the patients and on its evolution before the deterioration of vital functions triggers the alert according to EWS criteria. In this way, unlike the EWS, the healthcare staff will be promptly informed about the clinical conditions of each patient since the computer assigned to the ward, equipped with artificial intelligence, will provide a picture of the evolution of the patient's clinical status. This information will also be sent to mobile media (tablets) in the possession of medical personnel.
Advantages of cooperation
Why is cross-border cooperation necessary to achieve the objectives and results of the project?
In Malta, tourism is the top item in the state budget and the island lives thanks to a constant flow of visitors from Sicily. To continue this trend, it is necessary to offer tourists all kinds of assistance and services, with particular attention to the health sector. To guarantee the same standards of care in the two countries, it is necessary for the health authorities to cooperate to offer as much continuity and homogeneity of service to citizens as possible. In this regard, Directive 2011/24 / EU, concerning the application of patients' rights relating to cross-border healthcare, establishes the conditions under which a patient can travel to another EU country to receive medical assistance. safe and quality; in addition, it encourages cooperation between national health care systems.
In this context, the project idea is to create an innovative tool for the benefit of patients. In order for this tool to operate in two different healthcare contexts, a preliminary study must be undertaken by both parties to understand on what basis it can operate.
In fact, the strength must lie in its modularity: the fact that it is designed and tested on two different management and operating models guarantees the robustness and versatility of the new technology proposed. A clinical trial phase will be carried out in both areas where new technologies will complement those currently in use in the departments of medical facilities (EWS - Early Warning Score). The system will benefit from its cross-border character by bringing together knowledge of medical teams belonging to different management systems.
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