1.
Better care for patients with brain disorders
Through the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) healthcare support systems, the project aims to provide personalised rehabilitation treatment assessments for patients with Parkinson’s, Multiple Sclerosis and Stroke, to ensure that medical interventions are effective and that situations likely to aggravate can be predicted.
2.
AI methods and Big Data Management as predictive tools
The healthcare ecosystem is realizing the importance of AI-powered tools in the next-generation healthcare technology. It is believed that AI can bring improvements to any process within healthcare operation and delivery. For instance, the cost savings that AI can bring to the healthcare system is an important driver for implementation of AI applications. The use of AI methods (Big Data Analytics, Machine and Deep Learning) as predictive tools is particularly relevant for brain diseases as, in many cases, by the time all the clinical symptoms manifest, the outcomes are essentially irreversible. In this light, better tools for assisting the detection of early signs of brain disease are needed. Advances in machine intelligence have created powerful capabilities in algorithms that find hidden patterns in data, identify anomalies in “expected” patterns as well as common features and are able to highlight associations between patients, conditions and therapeutical options.
3.
Impact on health systems, economies and societies
Digital Transformation is a challenging necessity due to the global problem of healthcare workforce shortage that is believed to reach a deficit of about 4.1 million skilled health professionals (midwives, nurses and physicians) by 2030 in the EU, according to the World Health Organization. In the case of brain diseases research, technological advances have been proved particularly effective.
Big Data Analytics and Machine Learning methods can provide clinically actionable information that can complement medical recommendations and foster higher efficiency and effectiveness of treatments in a field where experts predict a growing shortage of specialists.
In terms of overall economic and societal impact, neurological disorders account for an increasing burden in terms of disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) (i.e., the number of years lost due to ill-health, disability or early death), ranking third after cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Given that the prevalence of most neurological disorders increases with age, their burden is expected to rise in countries with ageing populations.