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05/05/09
The Blue Brain Project will help to understand how the brain works.
The Cajal Blue Brain initiative agglutinates the Spanish participation
in the international project Blue Brain, the first extensive attempt to reverse engineer the brain of mammals
to understand its functioning and dysfunctions through simulations carried out with new computer tools.
Spanish participation in this project, funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation,
groups twelve teams of researchers from different institutes and scientific centers, led by the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM) and the Superior Council of Scientific Research (CSIC).
Javier Uceda, Rector of the UPM, and Rafael Rodrigo, chairman of
CSIC, have presented the initiative, along with Henry Markram, Director of the
Blue Brain Project and of the Center of Neuroscience and Technology (CNT) of the Ecole Polytechnique de Lausanne (Switzerland). In Spain, the project is led by Javier de Felipe, a researcher at the CSIC, and José María Peña, professor of the Faculty of Computer Sciences of the Polytechnic University of Madrid.
"Blue Brain has a scope similar
to that of the Genome project. Its end goal is to provide the
scientific community of a tool that, through computer simulations,
will develop basic and clinical research on the brain structure
and function, the most complex and enigmatic vital organ, "says de Felipe.
Through the simulations we will be able to observe the operation of the
brain and its behavior in dysfunctional situations as in the case of
illnesses such as depression or Alzheimer's disease.
The researchers will as well be able to test the response of new drugs on these dysfunctional patterns.
"The tool will be able to understand what
is happening in the brain and with it different behaviors may be tested.
It is like in aeronautical engineering: a model simulates the flight of a
plane and try how the wind, rain or other conditions would affect it
and how would the aircraft respond. We are trying to do something similar
with the brain", exemplifies Peña.
The project also seeks to serve the studies on
structure and function of the brain. It is expected that at a certain point the
Neuroscientists will learn how the brain is formed, developed and aged, or the
mechanisms by which we learn and improve our intellectual capacities.
The UPM and the CSIC, leading the investigation.
The Blue Brain project seeks to explain the operation of
the most interesting and enigmatic organ in the human being: the brain.
Its origins date back to 2005, when L'École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
(Switzerland) and IBM company announced the plan to create a functional model of
the brain using the Blue Gene supercomputer. In 2008, the UPM joined the Blue Brain
consortium when this project was launched at an international level, an initiative to
which the Superior Council for Scientific Research (Consejo Superior de
Investigaciones Científicas) joined to coordinate, both of them, the Spanish
participation in the Cajal Blue Brain project led by this Madrid university .
Spanish works are centered around two main axis: the
anatomical and functional microorganization of the cortical column, and
the development of biomedical technology.
The first of them, led by researcher at the CSIC
Javier de Felipe, will analyze the anatomy and functioning of the
neocortical column, the basic unit of operation of the
cortex or cerebral cortex in mammals. To this end, the team
directed by de Felipe will use electronic microscopy technics which, so far,
had not been used in the analysis of brain cells.
UPM researcher José María Peña directs the
part of the project focused on the development of technological applications,
mainly computer ones. Data analysis will be performed using a supercomputer,
Magerit, installed in the CESVIMA of UPM, which allows high performace computations.
They will also optimize and develop new software
to ensure that the Blue Brain models can be displayed. These developments may,
in the future, be useful in other disciplines.
In addition to the UPM and the CSIC, twelve other
scientific groups make up the initiative Cajal Blue Brain. They come from different
spanish institutes and research bodies: Spanish Institute of Biomedical Research of
Barcelona, Superior Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), University of Castilla La
Mancha, Rey Juan Carlos University , University of the País Vasco,
University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Ramón y Cajal Hospital of Madrid and
Carlos Haya Hospital of Malaga.
Source: AlphaGalileo (05/05/09)
Read Original News
27/02/09
The Medicine of
the future within our reach.
Ártica Telemedicina is a company created
by Telecommunications Engineers degrees from the UPM. This initiative
transfers their knowledge and expertise developed at the University,
to an emerging sector like Telemedicine.
The continuing evolution of Telecommunications and the
Information Society is a factor which influences all areas of our lives, both in
leisure and in our work system, and the way of receiving and rendering services.
The health sector and its operations are not alien to this
phenomenon. Telemedicine, meaning the use of tools that technological development in
terms of telecommunications and information technology put at our disposal, is
introduced gradually in its management.
Javier Perdices and Alejandro Sanchez-Rico,
Telecommunications Engineers by the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM)
specialized in this field have been able to identify this need and
have created Ártica Telemedicina. This company is dedicated
mainly to consultancy and development of turn-key projects in
telemedicine and medical informatics. Its aim is to improve the
quality of life of patients and facilitate the work of the medical
community, for which they develop easily installable solutions adaptable
to current systems .
Information analysis of diabetics
Along with his consulting work, with customized products,
this company promotes other projects. Among them, a diabetes telemedicine system which
provides tools for analyzing information relating to diabetic patients.
Thus, through a multi-access system as Internet, mobile phone or PDA, patients can enter
all data on insulin, glycemia, diets, etc. remotely. It represents a major support for the
physician for management, monitoring and communication, resulting in
better diagnosis and patient monitoring.
Another one of its projects, Pediatric Teleassistance,
facilitates that the students or patients from different centers as
residences, day centers, etc., receive remote assistance
through videoconferencing in cases that are not of high
urgency. Or, simply, to carry out monitoring of them.
The research activity of Ártica also means
collaboration in leading research projects at a European level.
This applies, for example, for Troy, which develops an
endoscopy capsule with ultrasound, or MyHeart, consisting of
tele-monitorization of patients with heart failure.
Galia Soft & Galia Soft Net
These computer applications represent a revolution in terms of
organizations' management and patients' associations, which
handle a significant infrastructure in terms of patients and
sometimes even have facilities spreaded throughout Spain's geography.
For effective management, access to a tool to centralize information efficiently
is required, in both quantitative and qualitative ways.
Galia Soft has been developed jointly with the Madrid
Parkinson Association. This system covers the administrative ,
clinical and social management of this entity. To do this,
it has tools that improve management processes and of the
treatment that doctors and social workers provide to
patients through a customization of their monitoring.
The system helps social workers in their day to day tasks,
or in the management or the volunteers' sector, through a custom monitoring of the
social needs of each patient.
It also makes it easier for therapists to assess the state of their
patients and track their progress in disciplines as
varied as physiotherapy, speech therapy, psychology or
music-therapy. It favors the doctor-patient relationship and
physician-caregiver and as an added value information of vital importance is obtained
for the making of personalized statistics on the association, patients, disease,
therapies, and so on. Its creators have planned the integration of neurologists into the system.
Galia Soft Net
Parallel to Galia Soft, Galia Soft Net has emerged.
This system allows the creation of a digital network of associations which
facilitates collaboration between them and the possibility of obtaining global
information about the disease.
This project is a collaboration with the Spanish Parkinson´s Federation
and the Madrid Parkinson's Association in the Parkinson Net project, whose goal was to create a
Digital Network of Parkinson Associations in Spain. It was funded by the Avanza Plan, within which it received
the 1st prize in the category "Inclusion in the Information Society: Seniors and Disabled."
Source: Universia (27/02/09)
Read Original News
06/10/08
Interview to
Alejandro Sánchez-Rico, General Manager at Ártica Telemedicina.
Ártica Telemedicina is a company that provides technologic
solutions for the health and social health sectors. For 4 years Ártica has been
collaborating with social organizations and this interview focuses on the result this
years of experience to get their input in the management of associations for the
sick and the disabled.
- Good morning, how does Ártica´s collaboration in the social sector beggins?
Since its inception Ártica has worked with the
Madrid Parkinson´s Association in the management of their technology infrastructure.
The association was aware at the time that it needed a technological change that allowed the
exchange of information between departments to improve their work processes and thus
affecting this improvement the service given to its associates.
The development and design of the system
was performed over two years of collaboration, creating a modular system allowing
to add new features in the future or making adjustments
simply and effectively. After this work the Galia Soft system came up, specifically designed for
clinical, social and administrative management of associations for the sick and the disabled.
Madrid Parkinson´s Association, with its drive and vision,
has integrated the system into the daily practice of all professionals,
optimizing its work processes resulting in greater dedication to their main interest,
its associates.
- ¿How would you define Galia Soft?
Galia Soft is a work tool for the clinical, social and administrative
management of the association. It not only facilitates the work of administrative staff, but also
offers benefits to social workers and professional doctors of the association.
The tool also allows associations who share
a very focused interest in the same condition or disabilities to cooperate through
Galia Soft Net, which allows the creation of networks of associations. For communication between
professionals from different geographical areas, obtaining comprehensive statistics on the disease or
disability, etc.
- And in general terms, ¿what does Galia Soft bring to associations?
Galia Soft offers a group of functionalities to facilitate the daily
tasks of the associations and optimize their work processes. Among the functionalities offered to
the associations we can highlight several fields:
- Clinic, offering professionals physiotherapy, speech therapy, psychology, etc. evaluations
to improve information about the associate´s problems, improving their treatment and care.
- Social, through specific functionalitiesfor the management of
social therapies, associates´needs, volunteers, dependency scale, etc.
- Administrative, integrating tools for the control of
the association´s activities, the bills for its services,
agendas of the professional staff, fees, etc. These modules are
interrelated to facilitate to the maximum work´s daily processes.
- Communication, providing a plurality of means of communication between
professionals and also between professionals and the associate and with Galia Soft
Net also between professionals of various associations:news, discussion forums,
chat and videoconference.
- Statistics, using a tool that accesses all system data to extract information to
help know better the evolution of the associates, the work done by the association
activities, etc.. With Galia Net Soft statistics are supplemented with the possibility of
obtaining them at a global level, integrating information from various associations.
- ¿Is a technological infrastructure neede to operate the system?
To use the system only a computer with an Internet connection is required.
You can enter from any of the association centers, for example, from the home of
associates for home workers, etc.
You commented that you can create networks of associations with
Galia Soft Net, what benefits can be obtained with this
interrelationship?
Galia Net Soft emerges from the collaboration of Ártica
Telemedicina with the Madrid Parkinson´s Association and the
Spanish Federation of Parkinson in the Parkinson Net project.
It was a project funded by the R & D Avanza Plan which was
1st prize in the category "Inclusion in the Information
Society: Seniors and Disabled."
This project laid the foundation for cooperation between
associations and raises a key point in this cooperation, which is
the fact that all national associations should work
in caring for their partners in a same way. Introducing
best practices in all associations, allowing support and collaboration between
associations and thus sharing the expertise of professionals, improving
on a national level the treatment and care of illness or disability.
¿Which is the next step? ¿What will the future bring?
Today in society we watch the population
aging and in turn life expectancy improves, which implies a
gradual increase of people in situations of dependence and
that social organizations like the Parkinson Association provide
an enormous support.
Organizational and quality needs in care
will be increasingly bigger to support the entire group which is in need,
this requires the application of new technologies to facilitate the work
of professionals and give more ability to assist to the associations.
Ártica Telemedicina has worked with the associations
devoted to Parkinson and is now thinking about extending this model to
associations of other diseases and disabilities. Galia Soft offers a system
customized to the needs of associations and by being modular it can evolve
continuously to incorporate new features and improvements.
Source: Fundación Universia (06/10/08)
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