Periodic Reporting for period 2 - CARDIALLY (Capturing and quantitative analysis of multi-scale multi-channel diagnostic data.)
Période du rapport: 2017-11-01 au 2019-10-31
The HORIZON 2020 MSCA Research and Innovation Staff Exchange project CARDIALLY was a four-year programme of knowledge transfer between Aston University, University of Brescia, industrial partner DIASENS, and Novosibirsk State University. The key goal of the interdisciplinary project was to bring together the complimentary expertise of participants to improve methodology and develop new tools for diagnostic tools of heart failure prediction. This is the challenging and important problem with a strong impact of healthcare and potential of improvement of the quality of life of millions of people.
Project CARDIALLY has been wholly successful and has led to a number of research and technological achievements. CARDIALLY has made major contributions to development of the technology capable to do real-time measurements, development of the techniques of real-time signal processing and led to fabrication of a prototype device. This device combines advanced methods of data acquisition and complex data analysis. The project has developed novel diagnostic engineering technologies and explored medical applications. Strong interdisciplinary nature of the project and a balance of practical application and fundamental science ensured a wide range of skills and knowledge transfer within the consortium. Working in close collaboration with our SME partner DIASENS did allow early career researchers to gain an invaluable experience in bringing research to real life applications and to broaden their future career choices.
Project CARDIALLY has been wholly successful and has led to a number of research and technological achievements. CARDIALLY has made major contributions to development of the technology capable to do real-time measurements, development of the techniques of real-time signal processing and led to fabrication of a prototype device. This device combines advanced methods of data acquisition and complex data analysis. The project has developed novel diagnostic engineering technologies and explored medical applications. Strong interdisciplinary nature of the project and a balance of practical application and fundamental science ensured a wide range of skills and knowledge transfer within the consortium. Working in close collaboration with our SME partner DIASENS did allow early career researchers to gain an invaluable experience in bringing research to real life applications and to broaden their future career choices.
CARDIALLY developed new techniques for real-time measurements for the electrocardiogram (ECG) applications and beyond. New techniques of real-time signal processing including machine-learning methods have been developed and tested for analysis of ECG signals. In the framework of the project, we demonstrated how mutual information can be used as a metric for ECG analysis. Recent advances in development of portable ECG devices that required real time processing make efficiency and simplicity of implementation of measures an especially important feature. In the framework of the CARDIALLY, we compared performance of different distance measures and use them as identifier of abnormalities between different cycles of ECG. We demonstrated that the Jaccard distance (based on mutual information) provides a simple and efficient way to identify abnormality in heart beating (here we studied effects of arrhythmia and fibrillation), robust to translation invariance and noise. We showed that it can be used for identification of DM changes of ECG heart beats even in the presence of strong noise and when the baseline changes between ECG heart beats. This is important for portable devices. The simplicity of the method makes it a promising candidate to be used as part of classification/clustering algorithm or in portable ECG-analyzing devices as straightforward and simple identifier of abnormal behaviour of ECG.
As to abnormal behaviour of ECG we emphasize that, in the framework of the CARDIALLY, we considered the implementation of Algorithms to predict shock outcome based on ventricular fibrillation waveform. Indeed, VF is a medical emergency of enormous proportions and it is one of the first causes of sudden death in a large range of population's age. Different algorithms have been constructed, characterized, tested and evaluated exploiting the observational prospective study, done during the CARDIALLY project, which includes 260 patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest treated by the emergency medical services in Brescia, Italy, between 2006 and 2009. We demonstrated that Algorithms can be potentially useful tools to effectively optimize defibrillation strategy, thus immediate defibrillation versus cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
The main achievement of the CARDIALLY is a demonstration of the prototype device fabricated by DIASENS. All the knowledge transfer targets, that required synergetic efforts of all participating teams and cross-training of staff, have been successfully achieved. DIASENS applied for permission to organize pilot clinical testing of the prototype device and the request for approval is in the process of consideration. The draft protocol for the pilot clinical testing was designed in collaboration with the medical experts and working cardiologists from the Medical School of University of Belgrade (http://www.mfub.bg.ac.rs/eng/home/).
During the project period DIASENS in collaboration with the partner institutions completed hardware of the experimental multi sensor device and appropriate software for control the measuring process and data acquisition and advanced numerical methods for cost efficient data processing. The system started from the basic idea reached the technology readiness level TR4. It is fully operational and ready to proceed with the planned data acquisition in the hospital environment. The successful realization of the experimental multi sensor device is the result of the gained knowledge of the DIASENS researchers from the partner institutions through the completed extensive secondments plan on design, fabrication and encapsulation of the fiber optical sensors, and advanced algorithms for signal processing and data analyses.
As to abnormal behaviour of ECG we emphasize that, in the framework of the CARDIALLY, we considered the implementation of Algorithms to predict shock outcome based on ventricular fibrillation waveform. Indeed, VF is a medical emergency of enormous proportions and it is one of the first causes of sudden death in a large range of population's age. Different algorithms have been constructed, characterized, tested and evaluated exploiting the observational prospective study, done during the CARDIALLY project, which includes 260 patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest treated by the emergency medical services in Brescia, Italy, between 2006 and 2009. We demonstrated that Algorithms can be potentially useful tools to effectively optimize defibrillation strategy, thus immediate defibrillation versus cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
The main achievement of the CARDIALLY is a demonstration of the prototype device fabricated by DIASENS. All the knowledge transfer targets, that required synergetic efforts of all participating teams and cross-training of staff, have been successfully achieved. DIASENS applied for permission to organize pilot clinical testing of the prototype device and the request for approval is in the process of consideration. The draft protocol for the pilot clinical testing was designed in collaboration with the medical experts and working cardiologists from the Medical School of University of Belgrade (http://www.mfub.bg.ac.rs/eng/home/).
During the project period DIASENS in collaboration with the partner institutions completed hardware of the experimental multi sensor device and appropriate software for control the measuring process and data acquisition and advanced numerical methods for cost efficient data processing. The system started from the basic idea reached the technology readiness level TR4. It is fully operational and ready to proceed with the planned data acquisition in the hospital environment. The successful realization of the experimental multi sensor device is the result of the gained knowledge of the DIASENS researchers from the partner institutions through the completed extensive secondments plan on design, fabrication and encapsulation of the fiber optical sensors, and advanced algorithms for signal processing and data analyses.
The implementation of the CARDIALLY has added new knowledge to the field of signal processing, photonics, sensing, medical and healthcare applications. The project has also generated a substantial body of new results beyond the original scope - on the application of the ultra-fast real-time optical signal processing for fiber-optic and laser measurements. The project CARDIALLY had a true interdisciplinary nature. The project has bridged such diverse areas of science as laser physics, applied mathematics, nonlinear science, fibre-optic technologies, medical applications, and signal processing.
Overall, CARDIALLY advanced state-of-the-art in signal measurements and processing and contributed to both European excellence and European competitiveness in a number of ways ranging from the new knowledge generation to development of a prototype device for real life healthcare applications. The research has significant potential for life-changing applications in cardiology, especially relevant to adult and aging population.
During the project period the partner institutions of the CARDIALLY project established strong links and partnership relations with an agreement to continue close collaboration. The next step is preparation of application to the Collaborative Grant Scheme Program (http://www.inovacionifond.rs/programs/collaborative-grant-scheme-program) at the Innovation fund of Serbia (http://www.inovacionifond.rs/) creating consortium with the partner institutions of the CARDIALLY project: University of Belgrade (Medical School and Vinca Institute), Aston University and University of Brescia. In parallel, DIASENS team will start in 2020 a campaign with an elevator peach to approach the alternative funding sources, primary VC funds in Serbia and EU.
Overall, CARDIALLY advanced state-of-the-art in signal measurements and processing and contributed to both European excellence and European competitiveness in a number of ways ranging from the new knowledge generation to development of a prototype device for real life healthcare applications. The research has significant potential for life-changing applications in cardiology, especially relevant to adult and aging population.
During the project period the partner institutions of the CARDIALLY project established strong links and partnership relations with an agreement to continue close collaboration. The next step is preparation of application to the Collaborative Grant Scheme Program (http://www.inovacionifond.rs/programs/collaborative-grant-scheme-program) at the Innovation fund of Serbia (http://www.inovacionifond.rs/) creating consortium with the partner institutions of the CARDIALLY project: University of Belgrade (Medical School and Vinca Institute), Aston University and University of Brescia. In parallel, DIASENS team will start in 2020 a campaign with an elevator peach to approach the alternative funding sources, primary VC funds in Serbia and EU.