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@neurIST, optimization and treatment of the brain aneurysms

On Thursday the 18th of March the results of the @neurIST European project for optimization and the treatment of brain aneurysms was presented as part of the celebration of 'The World of IT Health', held in Barcelona from the 15th to the 18th of March. @neurIST has developed and united different technologies with the aim of optimizing workflow in medical treatment of patients with brain aneurysms, focusing on improving the treatment of affected and resource optimization. In the future it is intended to implement the system developed by @neurIST on other diseases.

22 March 2010

Alejandro Frangi, scientific coordinator of the project and director of the Research Group in Computational and Image Simulation Technologies in Biomedicine a (CISTIB) of the DTIC of the UPF explained how @neurIST (Integrated Biomedical Informatics for the Management of Cerebral Aneurysm) does a study of brain aneurysms (abnormal swelling of the lining of an artery or vein that can lead to its rupture and stroke) from the perspective of each patient, using an integrated system for diagnosis and treatment optimization.

The great contribution of @neurIST is the integration. So far, both the diagnosis and treatment were affected by the extreme fragmentation of data being generated. In these cases a large amount of heterogeneous data is involved, which can be managed and processed with @neurIST to facilitate the proper diagnosis and treatment if a stroke should occur, with the complications it involves.

Using @neurIST can see the level of risk for each patient can be seen and thus reduce unnecessary treatment to the half, which also translates into substantial savings for public health, that can reach billions of Euros a year. Keep in mind that the rupture of an aneurysm is one of the most common causes of stroke and only one in three affected is saved from death or physical disability, speech, etc.., with all the personal, economic and social consequences problems.

The project, which counts on a budget of 17 million, is part of the 6th Framework Program of the Technology of Information Society IST. Its consortium consists of companies and medical and academic institutions from twelve European countries. It has various partners of the United States, New Zealand and Japan. From the Catalan system, besides the Universidad Pompeu Fabra, the Hospital Clínic, the Municipal Institute of Medical Research (IMIM), from its Research Unit on Biomedical Computing, the Centre for Therapeutic Neuroangiography of the General Hospital of Catalonia, and the companies GridSystems and Philips Medical Systems have also participated.

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