Launched as part of the EU’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme to imagine the hospital services of the future through Artificial Intelligence and applied robotics, project HosmartAI (Hospital Smart Development based on AI) has an international reach.
A collaborative project comprising more than 24 partners, including private institutions, universities and hospitals, among the Italian excellences Vimar stands out as the technological partner, together with the San Camillo IRCCS hospital in Venezia Lido, which specialises in the treatment of neurological diseases.
The pilot project, which was launched in 2021 within the Veneto-based healthcare facility and involved 80 patients, experimented with the installation of Vimar solutions, including the View Wireless connected system, which manages accesses and presence detection, monitors re-education activities while ensuring patient safety.
Vimar products made it possible to collect useful data to verify the efficacy of the method introduced. The treatment rooms were fitted with the access control system and presence detectors with UWB technology, connected to the rehabilitation machinery. These applications, combined with the cloud system and Vimar’s View App, allow the use of rooms to be monitored and the actual hours of treatment provided to be measured, thus recording the patient’s progress and providing quantitative data as well as a log of their state of health.
Moreover, the UWB presence detectors were installed in critical areas, such as the bathrooms, where the patient needs to be monitored without infringing on their privacy, to avoid them falling and allow prompt intervention; the entire system is easy to control by the healthcare professional who, using their smartphone, can receive notifications in the event of a fall.
So the goal was not simply to collect data for purely clinical purposes, but also to introduce a new organisational model, thereby demonstrating that, in the world of physiotherapy, the context and the surrounding environment affect the rehabilitation process.
The innovative approach introduced by the project, which is set to end in May 2024, requires the definition of characteristics relating to patients who will be able to access group therapy with advanced rehabilitation devices based on virtual reality; it increases access to treatment, in other words making it possible to treat a larger amount of people using the same amount of resources (up to 48.1% more patients treated in the model whereby a physiotherapist treats up to 3 patients in a group), retaining the same clinical efficacy; what’s more, it accurately defines the number of patients treated simultaneously, the time frames and the results, in order to optimise the treatments.
With this organisational model, the operator’s role will change slightly compared to traditional treatment plans; by working with a more independent group, more importance will be given to training, encouraging autonomy rather than continuous care. The patient will play an active role and sharing with others who are in the same clinical condition will create a collaborative sharing-focused environment, enabling the rehabilitation process.
Collecting information based on the direct experience of both patients and healthcare professionals is the cornerstone of project HosmartAI, and it is specifically thanks to this approach that Vimar provided its expertise in the field of technology. The team comprising physiotherapists, a project manager and expert engineers acted in total synergy to integrate Vimar’s technical perspective with the clinical expertise of San Camillo hospital: data collection and analysis platforms were developed, with the aim of improving the performance and planning of strategic activities in the clinical, treatment and rehabilitation areas as well as management and logistics.
With a view to developing purpose-devised products for the needs of people with restricted mobility, project HosmartAI played an essential role for Vimar. The technology implemented not only demonstrated its efficacy in the field of rehabilitation, but it also proved to be a precious ally in promoting health. This approach is perfectly in keeping with the concept of Positive Energy, that drives business actions, and has opened up new opportunities in the industry.
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