The SmartHEALTH project has made significant progress over the last period towards achieving the stated aims and objectives. Major efforts have been successfully focused on developing the desktop instruments with integrated microfluidic packaged sensors and the ICT platform to achieve a working, ambient intelligent system which is currently being tested with the electrochemical sensor technology. Additional ICT functionality related to secure data transfer and device interoperability is currently being prepared for evaluation within an e-health system environment. Further technical advances in the period have resulted in successful utilisation of the instrument modularity to introduce the capability of fluorescence detection of nucleic acid amplification. In all of this work, particular attention has been paid to system quality, manufacturability and traceability according to international standards for medical devices.
The studies being carried out on clinical utility of biomarkers in each of the cancer application areas have progressed significantly, e.g. mRNA markers in blood have been identified for colorectal cancer and assays and protocols for their measurement have been established.
Market studies and a survey of IP generated within the project are being used to further define the potential exploitation routes for the SmartHEALTH technology.
The significant outcomes of the work carried out in the third period include:
Technologies such as those being developed within SmartHEALTH have been recognised to have potential ethical and societal issues with regard to public perception and acceptance. Therefore, through public engagement activities, SmartHEALTH has attempted to identify and address cultural factors and issues arising from the potential future implementation of MNT-enabled technologies.
The European Community has made health and well-being one of its top priorities, not least in view of EU enlargement. Suggested lines of action to address these priorities have included: Improving information for the development of public health and Health promotion and disease prevention, screening and testing of target populations. It is expected that SmartHEALTH will have some impact in both of these areas.
The economic impact of the results of SmartHEALTH is potentially considerable with proposed technologies that will facilitate improved healthcare provision, from improved centralised screening systems, through to fast and flexible point of care systems. Expenditure for diagnosis generally represents less than 1% of total healthcare expenditure, thus increased testing cannot significantly increase healthcare costs but can significantly contribute to the quality of healthcare as it:
(SmartHEALTH 3rd Publishable Results.pdf for download)
