ROOMMATE Project - The Partners

Coordinator:

The ‘IRCCS Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi’ Rehabilitation Centre has been working for over 70 years to promote the independence of people with various neurological conditions.

It is a Scientific Institute of Care and Research with 27 facilities in Italy.

The centre of Florence hosts a neuromotor rehabilitation unit of with: 100 beds+100 outpatients/day. 

Orthopaedic, neurological, cardiological and respiratory rehabilitation activities are carried out in the Centre, according to different levels of intensity of care. 

MEDEA is a SME founded in 1997 as spin-off of the Scuola SuperioreSant’Anna - Pisa (Italy).

MEDEA has been working for more than 25 years to promote, in local and international contexts, the deployment of innovation in daily practice of social – healthcare services and ICT domain.

MEDEA services are based on a structured framework able to generate and maximize the evidence of the multidimensional impact of an innovation and to support value –based innovation management strategies. 

By following a co-creation approach with reference stakeholders and multidisciplinary experts, MEDEA’s innovation management framework supports the definition, collection and processing of quantitative and qualitative data and indicators to generate evidence about the technological, clinical and socio-economic value of innovative services (innovation impact assessment) and to identify determinants supporting impact maximization and value-driven innovation deployment strategies (impact assurance).

MEDEA is Chair of the Health Working Group within the Alliance for the Internet of things Innovation - AIOTI (https://aioti.eu/), it is involved into the IoT European Large Scale Pilots Programme as concern impact assessment KPIs definition activities, Vice-Chair of Activage.org Association promoting and driving the scale up of Active and Healthy Ageing services, and reference partner of MedICT, an innovative joint strategic initiative of Florence University, bringing together multidisciplinary panel of reference expertise to promote innovation deployment strategies in healthcare domain.

The Department of Industrial Engineering was established in 2013, essentially from the merger of two industrial departments at the University of Florence, the Department of Energy Engineering “Sergio Stecco” and the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Technologies.

The research activities of the Department encompass the fields of industrial engineering, covering its main cultural, scientific, and professional aspects.

The common goal of the research is to achieve original and significant results for real technological innovation. The Department supports and promotes collaborations with internationally renowned research centers and universities, both Italian and foreign. 

“Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy from Bucharest (UMFCD) is the state-run health-sciences university in Bucharest, Romania. It is the largest institution of its kind in Romania with over 2.865 employees, 1.654 teachers and over 4.800 students (https://umfcd.ro/). The University uses the facilities of 35 clinical hospitals all over Bucharest, including “Elias” University Emergency Hospital (www.spitalul-elias.ro) which also runs also under the tutelage of the Romanian Academy (www.acad.ro), the most prestigious scientific institution in Romania. The University Discipline of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (PRM) led by Mr Professor Mihai Berteanu conducts educational as well as clinical and research activities in the Department of Neurological Rehabilitation in Elias University Emergency Hospital (https://umfcd.ro/educatie/facultati-si-resurse/facultatea-de-medicina/facultatea-de-medicina-departament-9-medicina-fizica-si-de-reabilitare/disciplina-medicina-fizica-si-de-reabilitare-spitalul-universitar-de-urgenta-elias/). Mr Professor Berteanu is the National Manager for Romania in the UEMS PRM Section Board. The Department of Neurological Rehabilitation Elias Hospital is one of the 22 departments in this more than 700 beds hospital. Since 2008, the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine is UEMS Board Certified Training Centre for Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine residents and specialists in Europe . The Department has 35 beds and serves also outpatients, treating more than 2000 patients per year and is actively involved in higher education activities and in national and international rehabilitation medicine technology research projects (www.spitalul-elias.ro/rehab-research/index.htm). Our complex pharmacological, physical therapy, robotic and neuropsychological interventions aim to reduce functional deficits and to improve the level of activity and participation of our patients, adults with physical and cognitive disabilities. Our areas of interest are:  disability and functioning, activity and participation capabilities and performance, human motion and ergonomics, spasticity and pain, assistive technologies and rehabilitation robotics, cognitive rehabilitation and speech disorders therapy, biofeedback and sensing systems, balneology, health education and scientific education of young healthcare specialists, for which we have trained personnel, equipment and the expertise. 

Motor Learning and Neurorehabilitation Lab

The Motor Learning and Neurorehabilitation Laboratory (MLN Lab)  is an interdisciplinary research lab at the Human-Robot Interaction Group of the Cognitive Robotics Department of the Delft University of Technology. Our goal is to gain a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms associated with the acquisition of novel motor skills in order to develop innovative technology to improve the rehabilitation of neurological patients.

 Our research

Our research focuses on human-machine interfaces and biological learning, and, specifically, on the use of robotic assistance to aid people in learning motor tasks and rehabilitate after neurologic injuries. Within our group, we develop innovative intelligent controllers that modulate movement errors based on patients’ special needs, age and training task’s characteristics using a wide selection of robotic devices. We complement the research on robotics with the use of immersive virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) to enhance patients’ motivation and reduce their cognitive load during training. In order to get a better insight into brain-related intrinsic factors during therapy, electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) are used to identify neurocognitive markers underlying motor learning.

Roessingh Research and Development (RRD) is a research and development SME in the area of rehabilitation technology and eHealth with strong formalised links to one of the largest rehabilitation centres in the Netherlands (Roessingh Rehabilitation Center) and the University of Twente. The mission of RRD is to carry out scientific research and contribute to its commercialization and implementation in clinical practice.

RRD develops innovations in a multidisciplinary team and in close collaboration with all stakeholders (patients, informal and formal caregivers, academia, health care organisations and industry). RRD has extensive experience in many aspects of the development of innovative technology-supported health and care services; from initial scenario development and requirements elicitation with all stakeholders, technology development (ambulant sensing, IT services platform, Decision Support, personal context-aware coaching systems), user studies focused on usability, acceptance and user satisfaction, large-scale clinical evaluation studies up to implementation of new services in daily clinical practice, and Social Return on Investment (SROI) analyses. This experience has been gained in many large national and international projects.

Emovo Care is a medical device company developing robotic systems to support people with motor impairments. The company is based in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Our first product is a medical device exoskeleton to support hand impairments after stroke. Based on novel soft-robotics tech protected by 2 patents, the system is comfortable and simple to use, to support therapy both in clinical settings and at home. The company operates an ISO-13485 compliant QMS, and already deployed several systems for clinical and academic research worldwide.

Our long term vision is to develop devices that can do “therapy while living”: assist patients in their daily life to increase motivation, meaningfulness, and dose of motor therapy -ultimately allowing to achieve better clinical recovery and to improve quality of life.