Project: Diagnosis of skin cancer based on ICT tools
The skin is the biggest and most exposed organ in the human body. Due to several factors (change of habits, climate change, etc.) the incidence rate of melanoma has been increasing essentially in the last years. In order to save human lives and to save curing resources prevention and prediction must be favoured to costly medical interventions and care after the symptoms have developed._x000D_The SkinMonitor project will develop the innovative complex of non-invasive ICT based tools that help physicians improve the accuracy of skin cancer diagnosis even more and the assessment of the extension of the cancer within the body. The multi-parameter data from high resolution digital imaging, narrow band imaging and novel ultra-sound hardware will be collected, using a developed Skin Monitoring Device, processed and fused in order to support diagnosis and assessment of the lesion extension. Computational 3D models of the tumours will allow physicians to assess the extent of the lesions in order to develop automatic diagnosis of cancer. All data will be stored in a central database where neural networks algorithms will be trained improving its diagnosis accuracy along with data collection. SkinMonitor has such CO areas: Digital Image and Ultrasound data Acquisition and Processing, Diagnosis and Alert generation._x000D_SkinMonitor is an ambitious project with innovations and great expected impacts:_x000D_- Save lives and resources by focusing on prevention and prediction rather than on costly medical interventions after symptoms and diseases have developed._x000D_- Higher patient safety and comfort by optimising medical interventions and preventing errors._x000D_- Foster closer cooperation between ICT, medical devices, medical imaging and biomedical companies in order to increased European multidisciplinary research excellence. _x000D_- Strengthened leadership of EU medical imaging/devices industry contributing to attracting back to Europe core research activities._x000D_Due to its innovative and well beyond state of the art character, the SkinMonitor system will constitute an excellent market opportunity for the involved organizations improving Ps’ competitiveness. These organizations already operate on the health market, but this initiative will constitute a unique opportunity for developing and presenting new tools and services for the biomedical sector, generally associated to Large Enterprises. _x000D_Data acquired by the Skin Monitoring Device is transmitted to and processed by a personal computer and introduced into a Data Management and Decision Platform. Automatic processing and advanced fusion algorithms will enable to obtain higher resolution and more accurate representations of the skin lesions._x000D_For the achievement of the proposed objectives, the SkinMonitor consortium gathers Ps with exceptional competencies in each one these specific research areas:_x000D_Medical Competencies - assured by the University of Medicine and Pharmacy (UMF-CN) with medical competencies on the elaboration of diagnostics and therapeutics to dermatologic diseases, expertise in medical imaging and ultrasonography and e-Health; Department of Skin and Venereal Diseases of Kaunas University of Medicine (DSVD KUM) has competencies in epidemiological and clinical studies of pre-tumour skin diseases and skin cancer, especially the early diagnostics and prevention of skin melanoma. _x000D_Ultrasound Competencies: Ultrasound Institute of Kaunas University of Technology, widely experienced on different areas of application of the ultrasound technology, such as ultrasonic measurements in medicine, ultrasound probe miniaturization for specific medical use, aerospace industry, nuclear plants, space research, monitoring of various manufacturing processes, ultrasonic flow measurements of gases and liquids, non-destructive techniques for composite materials._x000D_ “Ultrasound Research and Education Centre (CECUS)” of UMF Cluj is dedicated to studying, understanding and applying the role of ultrasounds in medicine and biology;_x000D_High Resolution Video, Narrow Band Imaging and Image Processing Competencies: assured by AGILUS I+D, Visiomed and Labor, R&D performing SMEs that work on the development of controls and information technology applications and have large experience at developing medical imaging systems for other types of cancer (cervix, colon, small bowel, skin);_x000D_Electronics and Software: competencies assured by Labor, AGILUS I+D, UI of KTU and Visiomed, with great experience in the development of automation controls, software, micro-electronics and embedded systems. _x000D_Exploitation Competencies: AGILUS I+D, UI of KTU, Visiomed, UMF-CN, Labor and DSVD KUM constitute a transnational network, already experienced on the exploitation and dissemination of other R&D projects and highly interested on the activities and results of SkinMonitor project, responsible for exploitation and dissemination activities of the project.
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Acronym
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SkinMonitor
(Reference Number: 4846)
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Duration
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01/11/2009 - 31/05/2013
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Project Topic
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SkinMonitor will deliver non-invasive ICT based tools that improve the accuracy of skin cancer diagnosis by analysing and fusing information from digital images and ultra-sound data. By providing morphological information on the lesions, enables better assessment of cancer extent within the body.
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Network
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Eurostars
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Call
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Eurostars Cut-Off 2
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Project partner
