200 people participate in Franco-Catalan meeting on ICT and healthcare in Girona

BY BIOCAT

The University of Girona Science and Technology Park (UdG), with collaboration from the TicSalut Foundation and Ubifrance (the French agency for international business development), is organizing the second edition of this R&D&i Symposium on ICT and Healthcare in Girona on 4 and 5 May.

For the first time, this meeting will bring together the most important stakeholders in ICT and healthcare from Catalonia and France in order to bring ICT offer in line with the needs of healthcare centers, identify the main trends in the sector and find out about new cases of innovation in the area. “The focus of this second symposium will lead to a wider range of opportunities for Catalan and French companies and technology centers, and aims to consolidate its position as the yearly Franco-Catalan meeting of ICT and healthcare,” explained Anna Maria Geli, president of the University of Girona Science and Technology Park and dean of the University of Girona.

This second edition adds an additional day in order to incorporate a larger number of initiatives and include participation from French research centers and companies. Overall, there will be some twenty speakers, 100 innovation projects and a B2B space with more than 300 meetings scheduled between French and Catalan companies and centers.

The symposium, which will receive 200 visitors, has been organized around three main thematic focal areas:

• ICT for quality of live in ageing and fragile people. This topic will deal with how technology must adapt to the needs of the elderly and initiatives being promoted under the 7th EU Framework Program will be presented. Under the framework of specific experiences, speakers will explain the Plas’O’Soins project, a French platform to monitor and coordinate at-home care, and how the SAR Group uses ICT in their outpatient hospital residence centers and at home, where they currently have more than 25,000 telecare users.

• ICT in care practice. Some of the most cutting-edge lines in this field will be presented: the digital operating room, which allows medical imaging as not only a diagnostic tool but to generate a virtual model of the patient that can be used to plan surgeries to be carried out; the artificial pancreas, a new automatic control system for insulin infusion that improves quality of life for diabetics; spatial systems as an application in high-risk medical situations caused by geographic isolation; and the use of videogame technology to develop recovery environments for stroke victims; among others.

• ICT at the service of the people and co-responsibility for their health. Different visions and projects will be shown to help participants understand how ICT is a key tool for the sustainability of healthcare systems. For example, the Healthcare Linguistic Mediator (MELISA), the role of e-patients in the current healthcare system, e-health for oncology, the impact of virtual visits (e-care) on primary care teams, and the Forum Clinic experience.

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Broadcast: http://fi2.cat/jornadaticsalut