Fraunhofer Center for Assistive Information and Communication Solutions – AICOS22.12.2017
Mobile health solutions developed by Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS will play a key role in a new project that aims to develop an integrated mobile solution that collect relevant medical images for a large spectrum of pathologies. The MpDS project, led by the Portuguese company F3M, aims to create an intuitive tool, with a strong mobile component, that allows easy image acquisition, transmission and automated analysis in several clinical contexts.
The progressive introduction of mobile health solutions in the health sector has been gradually contributing for significant improvements in terms of clinical data acquisition and accessibility, especially in environments with limited healthcare resources. At FhP-AICOS, the development of innovative mobile-based solutions has been a continuous concern, being the focus of some of our R&D activities. Valuable knowledge for industry partners has emerged from these activities, for instance the mobile-based solution developed in the ambit of the project SMARTSKINS for skin cancer pre-diagnosis and risk assessment via smartphones, or the 3D-printed smartphone microscope with motorized automated stage developed in the MalariaScope project, termed µSmartScope.
F3M and FhP-AICOS are now joining efforts to create a new innovative mobile health platform to support clinical diagnosis in health units, a solution that will include several technologies already developed by FhP-AICOS.
Major focus will be given to the collection of medical images highly relevant for different clinical contexts, namely pigmented skin lesions, skin ulcers and blood samples. Using a smartphone and various optical magnification peripherals, this integrated and low-cost solution will be able to easily collect macroscopic, dermoscopic and microscopic images, insuring image quality through automated image processing.
The end-goal is to aid the clinical decision process by simplifying the medical image acquisition process and support healthcare professionals. In turn, it will allow the optimisation of resources in health units, reduce the number of in-person appointments, and reduce the back-and-forth of clinical files between local health units and specialized departments. To accomplish this, the prototype being developed will be designed for easy and intuitive use, since it should require little to no training to be used by healthcare professionals.
The project (identified as POCI-01-0247-FEDER-024086) according to Portugal 2020 is co-funded by the European Structural Investment Funds (ESIF) from European Union, framed in the COMPETE 2020 (Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation).