Objective
The iHELP project will utilise state of the art e-Health platforms and methodology in order to define best practices for providing on-line assistance, on 24h basis across the world, to surgeons using the latest neurosurgery systems in the Operating Room (O.R.) by the engineers who developed these systems, thus ensuring a smooth learning curve of the new technology by the surgeons and a drastic reduction of complications due to equipment intricacies or even to malfunction during an operation. The iHELP service will be integrated to planning & treatment systems already in use for neurosurgery operations. The users of the project will validate this e-Health service within their own operational environment, i.e. the O.R. of the participating clinics. The project aims to conduct controlled, small-scale trials that will create reproducible evidence, which will convince future buyers of the importance (in terms of quality and efficiency) of this e-health system. Quantifiable measures of success will include, among others, the rate of usage of the system, the satisfaction rate of users (the surgeons), the success rate per use of the system and direct benefits in patient welfare (e.g. effect on recovery & survival rates).
Objectives:
As technology continues to penetrate the classical surgery methodologies, equipment in an Operating Room (OR) evolve to extremely advanced, as well as sophisticated, assistance means. This high technology is of course enormously helpful when it comes to precision actions and real-time information update, but also introduces certain complications as it concerns operation details. Immediate resolution of these complications is very important, especially when a high-risk operation is in progress. The IHELP proposal will utilise state of the art e-Health platforms and methodology in order to define best practices for providing on-line assistance, on 24h basis, to surgeons
Work description:
The project has two principle axes: (i) validation and (ii) dissemination & exploitation.
The overall work is divided into 6 work-packages:
- WP1 is the introduction of the users to the fully functional iHelp prototype, integrated with the neurosurgery platform. The work will include installation and operational tests for the developers of IHELP and seminars fort he Users. WP1 will be concluded by month 5 of the project
- WP2 is the actual validation work; the protocols will be defined by month 5, in parallel with WP1, at which time the validation of the system will begin for 9 months; during the last 4 months of the project, the validation results will be fully analysed
- WP3 is for technical refinements of the iHelp platform, following the results of the evaluation
- WP4 involves external evaluators, who will be reviewing the project in order to guarantee that this is well on track
- WP5 is for dissemination and exploitation - both activities will last through the whole course of the project and the intensity of the impact will escalate as the project reaches its conclusion. Transfer of the validation results into the business plan for the exploitation of iHelp will be instrumental
- WP6 is for project co-ordination and management.
Milestones:
1. Installation of iHelp at the pilot sites and initial testing phase completed
2. iHelp validation concluded
3. Final product installed, tested and running at pilot sites
4. Project runs as expected without losing orientation and missing its original target
5. Exploitation of the results is planned and prepared to start at the conclusion of the project.
Fields of science
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
ACM - Preparatory, accompanying and support measuresCoordinator
85551 HEIMSTETTEN
Germany