Patient Empowerment, Engagement and Rehabilitation
Patient Empowerment and Rehabilitation area is focusing on enhancing the Physical and Mental Well-being of Cancer and Dementia Patients. For this reason, we developed/developing applications that aim to enhance the cognitive, physical and psychological interventions of cancer and dementia patients as documented below. Moreover, a citizen’s portal named ‘ELPIS’ for monitoring and intervening the ageing as well for educating the caregiver is under the design and development phase as documented below.
Immersive Virtual Reality (VR) technologies provide new methods and tools for the development of novel and promising applications mainly for neurological and cancer rehabilitation. VR interventions have several advantages and are rapidly gaining ground as popular applications for different disease conditions.
Areas of Expertise
Projects
01
HoloSurge: Multimodal 3D Holographic tool and real-time Guidance System with point-of-care diagnostics for surgical planning and interventions on liver and pancreatic cancers
Perioperative care is an intricate process that encompasses 1) preoperative evaluation, surgical planning and preparation; 2) intraoperative procedure; and 3) postoperative management. Perioperative care depends on clinical decision-making, a continuous process that involves many healthcare professionals (incl. radiologists, surgeons, anaesthesiologists, nurses, and others) who – based on the best available evidence, clinical experience, and the patient’s individual circumstances – make informed decisions on the best course of action. Even though advancements in medical imaging modalities (CT, MRI, ultrasound) have greatly improved surgical outcomes, their interpretation towards deciding a specific course of action remains subjective. In addition, these modalities have several limitations when used alone (e.g. missed lesions; cannot provide a 3D visualization of key structures such as vessels), ultimately failing to provide a full picture of the patient’s anatomy that is shared and unambiguously understood by all in the assigned team. Due to these limitations, there are often suboptimal decisions that add to a cumulative risk of surgical complications in perioperative care.
HoloSurge is a joint undertaking that brings European scientists and clinicians from high-tech companies, clinical centres, and research institutions in a consortium to deploy an innovative AI-based medical system that: i) enables automatic fusion and segmentation of state-of-the-art imaging modalities for interactive 3D holographic visualization of patients’ organs; ii) provides real-time surgical navigation; and iii) allows real-time cell-level cancer diagnostics. The solution will provide surgical teams with an unmatched holistic view of the patient’s anatomy and pathology in real-time at point of care, before and during surgery. This innovation will be validated for cancer interventions, while creating a trail of better-informed perioperative decision-making that can save countless lives.
Contact Person:
Dr. Maria Matsangidou
Email: m.matsangidou@cyens.org.cy
Project Info :
| Acronym: | HoloSurge |
| Website: | |
| Funder: | European Commission |
| Project Funding: | € 7 677 490,00 |
| Duration: | 4 years |
| Starting Date: | 01/01/2024 |
| End Date: | 31/12/2027 |
| Partners | 1. CYENS CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE 2. DIGESTIVE CANCERS EUROPE DICE 3. KLINIKUM DER UNIVERSITAT MUNCHEN 4. LUDWIG-MAXIMILIANS-UNIVERSITAET MUENCHEN 5. METROPOLIA AMMATTIKORKEAKOULU OY 6. NARODOWY INSTYTUT ONKOLOGII IM. MARII SKLODOWSKIEJ-CURIE -PANSTWOWY INSTYTUT BADAWCZY 7. ORBIT21 CONSULTING LTD 8. OSLO UNIVERSITETSSYKEHUS HF 9. SEMMELWEIS EGYETEM 10. SINTEF AS 11. STICHTING HET NEDERLANDS KANKER INSTITUUT-ANTONI VAN LEEUWENHOEK ZIEKENHUIS 12. THE LEEDS TEACHING HOSPITALS NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE TRUST 13. UNITED EUROPEAN GASTROENTEROLOGY GMBH 14. UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS |
02
VELES Excellence Hub – Strengthening the South-East Europe Smart Health Regional Excellence and Boosting the Innovation Potential
Smart Health is EU Strategic Value Chain that contributes to growth, jobs and competitiveness. Health Data is the main enabler for the value chain, but it also depends on cutting edge technologies – AI, cloud computing, IoT, to integrate the dispersed knowledge and support innovative healthcare solutions and services. EC sets the creation of a European Health Data Space as a main priority, to promote better exchange and access to health data.
On a regional level, the RIS3 strategies of the involved widening countries – Bulgaria, Romania, Greece and Cyprus emphasize the need for based on Big Data, AI and IoT digitalized healthcare, to enable personalized medicine, informed decisions, and improved disease prediction. RIS3 strategies also outline the need for more funding for R&I, policy coherence and development of territorially join innovation strategies. A cross country coordinated approach is needed to align the separate endeavours towards an Excellent South-East Europe Smart Health Innovation Ecosystem enabled by a Regional Smart Health Data Space.
VELES raises the level of innovation excellence in the South-East EU through creating a sustainable place-based innovation ecosystem, enabled by Regional Smart Health Data Space, including novel transformational framework, R&I and investment strategy and action plan for research, development and adoption of innovative and secure digital solutions that underpin the delivery of sustainable healthcare services. The Regional Smart Health Data Space will be demonstrated through the design of 4 interrelated pilots on Cancer treatment (Greece); Personalised/precision medicine of Alzheimer (Bulgaria); Cerebral tumours (Romania) and Dementia (Cyprus).
The aim of VELES is to foster health data sharing regional and national strategies, to secure improved clinical practice, to preserve patient’s privacy and to empower citizens’ smart healthcare through access to innovative, cyber secure and data driven digital health services.
Contact Person:
Dr. Maria Matsangidou
Email: m.matsangidou@cyens.org.cy
Project Info :
| Acronym: | VELES |
| Website: | https://veleshub.eu/ |
| Funder: | European Commission |
| Project Funding: | € 4 750 000,00 |
| Duration: | 4 years |
| Starting Date: | 01/06/2023 |
| End Date: | 31/05/2027 |
| Partners | 1. 3AE HEALTH LTD 2. BIOTEHNOLOGICHEN I ZDRAVEN KLASTER 3. CLUSTERUL REGIONAL INOVATIV DE IMAGISTICA MOLECULARA SI STRUCTURALA NORD-EST (IMAGO-MOL) 4. CYENS CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE 5. ELLINIKOS SYNERGATIKOS SCHIMATISMOS PSIFIAKIS YGEIAS IDIOTIKI KEFALAIOYXIKI ETAIREIA 6. ETHNIKI ARCHI ILEKTRONIKIS IGEIAS 7. INNEUROPE INITIATIVE S.L. 8. INTERNATIONAL DATA SPACES EV 9. Ministry of Electronic Governance 10. SOFIA UNIVERSITY ST KLIMENT OHRIDSKI 11. STEGI EVGIRIAS ARCHAGGELOS MICHAEL KAIMAKLIOY 12. STIFTELSEN CHALMERS INDUSTRITEKNIK 13. TELELINK BUSINESS SERVICES EAD 14. THE FACTORY IKE 15. UNITATEA EXECUTIVA PENTRU FINANTAREA INVATAMANTULUI SUPERIOR A CERCETARII DEZVOLTARII SI INOVARII |
03
CARE: Cancer, Allostatic Load, and Regulation of Emotions: How stress and emotion regulation impact mental and physical health of Breast and Testicular Cancer patients.
Improvements in cancer diagnosis and treatment strategies have led to more people living with cancer and concomitant mild-to-severe stress due to cancer-related health concerns and changes in life and functionality. Chronic stress can have a detrimental impact on patients’ health, as well as cancer progression and treatment outcomes, due to an over-activation of physiological systems involved in the body’s stress responses.
Based on previous literature, we hypothesize that cancer-associated stress has toxic effects on health in patients with poor ability to manage emotions in a flexible and adaptive way. The CARE project aims to examine a wide range of biological and psychological stress markers in breast and testicular cancer patients: how their levels change throughout the first year after cancer diagnosis and how these biomarkers interact with patients’ emotion regulation ability and psychological flexibility. We will study the impact of these markers on physical and mental health and on cancer progression and treatment response using biochemical, epigenetic and behavioural techniques.
We will also assess how these stress-related changes can be managed using a modern, brief, easy and accessible eHome-care, self-delivered intervention, via momentary ecological assessment of emotions and health indices, to enhance emotion regulation skills, functionality and wellbeing. To this end, after baseline assessment of immune, neuroendocrine, stress biomarkers and tumour epigenetics, as well as emotional responding to an experimental emotion induction procedure, breast and testicular cancer patients will be assigned to a self-administered, eHome-care intervention or wait-list control groups. Effects of the intervention will be assessed on the same biomarkers in up to 9 months follow-ups.
Findings from this project will provide reliable markers to predict at-risk cancer patients that can benefit from psychological interventions, but also evidence for the ability of already existing interventions to reduce cancer-related stress and its effects on physical and mental health outcomes.
Contact Person:
Dr. Maria Matsangidou
Email: m.matsangidou@cyens.org.cy
Project Info :
| Acronym: | CARE |
| Website: | N/A |
| Funder: | Cyprus Cancer Research Institute: CCRI |
| Project Funding: | € 200,000 |
| Duration: | 48 months |
| Starting Date: | 18/06/2021 |
| End Date: | 18/08/2024 |
| Partners | 1. Bank of Cyprus Oncology Center (BCOC) 2. CYENS CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE 3. University of Cyprus (UCY) |
Selected Papers
- Pittara, M., Matsangidou, M. and Pattichis, C.S., 2023. Virtual Reality for Pulmonary Rehabilitation: Comprehensive Review. JMIR Rehabilitation and Assistive Technologies, 10(1), p.e47114.
- Matsangidou, M., Solomou, T., Frangoudes, F., Papayianni, E. and Pattichis, C.S., 2023. Offering Outworld Experiences to In-Patients With Dementia Through Virtual Reality: Mixed Methods Study. JMIR aging, 6(1), p.e45799.
- Matsangidou, M., Solomou, T., Høegh Langvad, C., Xynari, K., Papayianni, E. and Pattichis, C.S., 2023, June. Virtual Reality Health Education to Prevent Musculoskeletal Disorders and Chronic Low Back Pain in Formal and Informal Caregivers. In Adjunct Proceedings of the 31st ACM Conference on User Modeling, Adaptation and Personalization (pp. 343-351).
- Matsangidou, M., Frangoudes, F., Schiza, E., Neokleous, K.C., Papayianni, E., Xenari, K., Avraamides, M. and Pattichis, C.S., 2023. Participatory design and evaluation of virtual reality physical rehabilitation for people living with dementia. Virtual Reality, 27(1), pp.421-438.
- Matsangidou, M., Solomou, T., Frangoudes, F., Ioannou, K., Theofanous, P., Papayianni, E. and Pattichis, C.S., 2023. Affective out-world experience via virtual reality for older adults living with mild cognitive impairments or mild dementia. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(4), p.2919.
- Kassianos, A., Matsangidou, M., Maria, S., Demetris, P., Theodoros, S., Maria, A., Karekla, M. and Constantinos, P., 2022. Designing digital health tools for helping metastatic breast cancer patients manage symptoms at home and optimize quality of life: PRICE and MET-GUIDE. European Journal of Cancer, 175, p.S35.
- Matsangidou, M., Frangoudes, F., Hadjiaros, M., Schiza, E., Neokleous, K.C., Papayianni, E., Avraamides, M. and Pattichis, C.S., 2022. “Bring me sunshine, bring me (physical) strength”: The case of dementia. Designing and implementing a virtual reality system for physical training during the COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 165, p.102840.
- Frangoudes, F., Matsangidou, M., Schiza, E.C., Neokleous, K. and Pattichis, C.S., 2022. Assessing human motion during exercise using machine learning: A literature review. IEEE Access, 10, pp.86874-86903.
- Matsangidou, M., Frangoudes, F., Solomou, T., Papayianni, E. and Pattichis, C., 2022, July. Free of walls: Participatory design of an out-world experience via virtual reality for dementia in-patients. In Adjunct Proceedings of the 30th ACM Conference on User Modeling, Adaptation and Personalization (pp. 326-334).
- Matsangidou, M., P. Kassianos, A., Papaioannou, D., Solomou, T., Krini, M., Karekla, M. and S. Pattichis, C., 2022, April. Virtual painkillers: Designing accessible virtual reality experiences for helping cancer patients manage pain at home. In CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Extended Abstracts (pp. 1-9).