Digital Innovation in Healthcare Award to TREC Cardiologia

It was a challenge to the last vote that saw the nine finalist projects compete last week at the “Sanità Digitale: ora serve un cambio di marcia!” (Digital Health: now we need a change of gear!) conference. Having made it through the selection process, four entities stood out the most in their ability to use modern digital technologies. Among these, the TreC cardiologia project.

At the ceremony in Milan, Diego Conforti, director of the Innovation and Research Office of the Province’s Health Department, presented the background, objectives and evolution of the Trentino platform to the qualified jury of professionals and healthcare experts.

The TreC cardiologia project, launched in July 2020, was created in response to the need to rethink the care of chronic patients, particularly those suffering from heart failure, of who are about 8,000 in the Trentino region.

The goal of the initiative is to develop a platform for the remote management of patients with heart failure, offering the possibility to remotely perform clinician-patient interactions and monitor the condition.

The “TreC Cardiologia” platform consists of a clinical dashboard that can be accessed by the healthcare provider via computer and an application that can be accessed via smartphone by the patient or caregiver. The physician can prescribe the patient to perform specific activities at certain times of the day. Likewise, the patient’s prescribed drug therapy can be indicated within the App.

The app also provides the patient with access to the Tele-visita remote visiting system, which contains a calendar with past and future appointments and access to video calling with the doctor, a chat room that allows asynchronous sharing of text messages and multimedia files, and a virtual assistant, which supports the patient in remembering and completing activities prescribed by the doctor.

As of the end of 2021, about 300 patients have been involved in using and evaluating the application, between the Trento and Rovereto Cardiology Departments (where the Telecardiologia Service is also active). Thanks to the patient management allowed by Televisita, it was possible to manage the physical space of the outpatient clinics more efficiently, reducing waiting times. At a later time, the clinical dashboard also integrated data from implantable medical devices (e.g., pacemakers, loop recorders) and ECG smartwatches provided to potentially about 5,000 citizens of the province.

In addition to recognition from the public, the Prize awarded to P.a.T. / Trentino Salute 4.0 also consists of a one-year subscription to the multimedia platform from the Digital Innovation Observatories of the School of Management of the Politecnico di Milano, which today represent a qualified reference point on Digital Innovation in Italy that produces and disseminates knowledge on the opportunities and impacts that digital technologies have on businesses, public administrations and citizens.