Proof of Concept of Remote Management of Chronic Inflammatory Airway Diseases for Patient Empowerment
Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is a multifactorial disease characterized by persistent symptomatic inflammation of the mucosa of the nose and paranasal sinuses, with (CRSwNP) or without (CRSsNP) the presence of nasal polyps. It affects 5 to 12% of the general population. CRS is often associated with asthma, which has a prevalence of 4% in the general population, reaching 30%-70% among patients with CRS. The current standard clinical evaluation of patients for both diseases has two main components: a subjective one (self-assessment provided by the patient), based mainly on the PROMs (Patient-Reported Outcome Measures) questionnaire, and an objective one (formulated by the clinician). Questionnaires present accuracy and response rate problems that have been investigated in the literature, finding that short questionnaires, incentives, personalization of questionnaires as well as repeat sending strategies or telephone reminders have a beneficial impact on the quantity and quality of responses. Today there are many new channels provided by technology. Among them, AI chatbots have been used in a variety of healthcare domains such as medical consultations, disease diagnosis, mental health support and, more recently, risk communications for the COVID-19 pandemic, and can offer a better way to collect questionnaires. At the same time, the recent technical solution of new non-invasive techniques for RFID radio frequency identification devices allows subjective reports to be accompanied with objective reports.
The PRECISION project aims to evaluate systems for home monitoring of chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) and asthma, two highly prevalent chronic diseases. The frequent association between the two pathological conditions is a further argument in support of the rationality of a common approach.
As regards the collection of PROMs, three acquisition channels will be compared: i) AI Chatbots; ii) PhoneBot; iii) Mobile application. Data will be analyzed in relation to patient profiles to define the quality and quality of response.
Regarding objective evaluation, the project will investigate the efficiency of objective remote airflow measurements for both upper (CRS) and lower (asthma) airways using dedicated non-invasive systems based on RFID technology.
Effects of VIRTUal reALity on Rehabilitation in Patients With Heart Failure: a Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial
Background. To improve symptoms and reduce poor outcomes related to heart failure (HF), international guidelines recommend cardiac rehabilitation (CR), particularly for those with a reduced ejection fraction. Unfortunately, patient adherence to rehabilitation programs remains suboptimal, with dropouts ranging from 15.4 to 63.3%. An innovative and promising intervention that could improve adherence to rehabilitation is virtual reality (VR). This study aims to evaluate the effects of VR in patients with HF undergoing CR in terms of adherence (primary outcome), functional capacity, perceived exertion, angina, quality of life, heart rate, oxygen saturation, blood pressure, maximum oxygen uptake, minute ventilation/carbon dioxide production slope, oxygen pulse, blood values of NT-proBNP and rehospitalization rates due to HF (secondary outcomes).
Methods. A randomized controlled trial will be conducted in a sample of 80 patients referred to CR. Participants will be enrolled in a cardiological rehabilitation unit of a large university hospital in Italy and randomized (1:1) to the experimental intervention consisting of CR performed with high-quality immersive VR with PICO 4® Head Mounted Display headset and TREADMILL XR® software (Arm 1) or standard CR (Arm 2). Patients will receive 30-minute CR sessions twice a week for one month.
Results. Significant improvements in primary and secondary outcomes are expected in patients in the intervention group.
Conclusions. If proven to be effective, VR could be an innovative, safe, and easy digital health intervention to improve adherence to CR in patients with HF, as well as important clinical outcomes.
Olfactory Disfunction After COVID-19: Conventional Therapy Versus Intervention Treatment With Co-ultraPEALut
Olfactory dysfunction is common among patients with Corona-Virus-Infection-Disease (COVID)-19, and up to 30% of patients may report persistent disorders of smell or taste as a long-term sequelae. This randomized-controlled study has addressed to compare the efficacy of neuro-protective and anti-inflammatory agents palmitoylethanolamide (PEA) and Luteolin(Treatment) with control (olfactory training) in a cohort of patients who present persistent smell disorders after resolution from Covid-19 and negative swab for 4 months at least.
100 Clinical Results associated with Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria di Sassari
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100 Deals associated with Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria di Sassari
100 Translational Medicine associated with Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria di Sassari