Dall’artrite reumatoide alla Sindrome di Sjögren ci sono anche molte malattie autoimmuni per le quali la “Medicina 4.0” può dare risposte diagnostiche e terapeutiche più precise. È una delle grandi novità emerse nel corso dell’ultimo appuntamento de “Il Sabato delle Idee”, il pensatoio napoletano, fondato dallo scienziato Marco Salvatore, che da dieci anni mette in rete alcune delle migliori eccellenze scientifiche, accademiche e culturali del Mezzogiorno.
During the 33rd edition of Futuro Remoto at Città della Scienza, “Il Sabato delle Idee” promoted a focus on the revolutionary future of the new frontiers of medicine 4.0 by bringing together professors, experts and researchers from the main Italian institutions in the sector, from the Human Technopole in Milan to the Campus Bio-Medico University in Rome, from the CNR, with President Massimo Inguscio opening the debate at the DIGITA Academy of the University of Naples Federico II.
An important research project is already active on the academic axis Naples-Rome, carried out by the Laboratory of Processing Systems and Bioinformatics of the Campus Bio-Medico University of Rome in collaboration with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technologies of the University of Naples Federico II for the development of new systems capable of classifying Indirect Immunofluorescence images, a method used to search for and identify anti-nuclear antibodies (ANA) in the patient's serum to contribute to an increasingly precise diagnosis of autoimmune diseases.
“The most significant result of the research activity – explained Giulio Iannello, dean of the Departmental Faculty of Engineering at the Campus Bio-Medico University of Rome – was the development of a system for the automatic classification of fluorescence intensity in images, which is the main indicator of test positivity. The system uses a Deep Learning technique called Invariant Scattering Convolutional Network (Scatnet) combined with a Support Vector Machine (SVM) to perform image analysis and subsequent classification of fluorescence intensity. The tests carried out have shown that the system is particularly robust and achieves performances completely comparable to those of an expert human operator”. A research project that, as highlighted by Marco Salvatore, scientific director of the IRCCS SDN and founder of Sabato delle Idee, “demonstrates the great potential of artificial intelligence and robotics in the diagnostic and therapeutic field, revolutionary both in terms of “personalization” of care and diagnostic-therapeutic precision”. Diagnostic and therapeutic potential that, as explained by the president of the CNR, Massimo Inguscio, "are also very useful to guarantee a better quality of life in a territory like Italy that sees longevity continuously increasing so much so that it has become, together with Japan, the country with the highest life expectancy in the world".
The Federico II Academy DIGITA, directed by Antonio Pescapè, full professor of Computer Engineering at the University of Naples Federico II, is also working in Naples on the application of Digital Transformation to health with numerous project works. At the Sabato delle Idee, he illustrated all the sectors of new technologies that can contribute to public health: from telemedicine to robotics, from big data to blockchain.
And even a great international excellence like the Human Technopole in Milan looks to the important academic realities of the South to create new research partnerships and create a great international hub that also contributes to the return to Italy of our best brains who 'fled' abroad, as its president Marco Simoni underlined.
The great technological revolution applied to medicine must not forget the human point of view of the sick, as Lucio d'Alessandro, Rector of the Suor Orsola Benincasa University, home to new high-level training courses in which the centuries-old pedagogical tradition of the University merges with the modern management of the health sector, wanted to point out. "New technologies are very important not only for patient care but also to exploit new communication systems for prevention, one of the fundamental points for public health", highlighted d'Alessandro, recalling the multimedia communication work of the Suor Orsola Benincasa University at the service of cancer prevention in the research and communication project with the ASL Napoli 2 Nord.
A communication effort that Campania would greatly need in the organ transplant sector, given that, as Patrizia Murino of the Regional Transplant Center explained to Sabato delle Idee, Campania is in third-last place in Italy in the ratio between inhabitants and organ donations and also has a discouraging 13% less than the national average for the consent expressed by citizens to organ donation. A gap that is above all cultural, on which “Il Sabato delle Idee” has undertaken the commitment to start working through its action network.
Article published on November 25, 2019 - 16:52
