AI solutions for the Brain Innovations spin-off
di Martina D'Onofrio
27 January 2022 - Among the 20 young companies selected out of 193 in the call for start-ups by Connect 2021, Brain Innovations - spin off UCBM founded by neurologist Lazzaro Di Biase - aims to solve, through artificial intelligence systems, three major problems related to Parkinson's: low diagnostic accuracy, absence of objective biomarkers for patient monitoring requiring multiple follow-up visits, therapeutic management of high fluctuation of motor symptoms.
Among the first signs of the disease, recognizable on physical examination, is the decreased ability to change facial expressions. Brain Innovations proposes a model capable of analyzing facial parameters with images taken using a video cameradistinguishing the healthy patient from the sick one. Similar technology is applied in the evaluation of the lowering of the vocal tone: the sound waves of a short recording make it possible to evaluate the motor state and identify sick patients: technologies without space and time barriers that can revolutionize the diagnostic approach, with the possibility of early screening at reduced costs.
Even more promising the teletherapeutic management with wearable devices (smartwatch type) and minimally invasive (skin sensors) for detecting motor fluctuations in patients undergoing oral, infusion or brain stimulation therapies. Considering that the NHS guarantees 3 checkups a year for patients exposed to daily fluctuations, responsible for motor disorders and therefore for complications such as falls and fractures, continuous telemonitoring could ensure a personalized medicine path with life expectancies equal to those of healthy people. Solutions that are also applicable to other pathologies that are widespread on a global scale and which lead to a complete rethinking of the governance of the health system, in the favorable scenario of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan in which one billion euros has been allocated in investments in telemedicine.
