In Trentino a mixed public-private business ecosystem is developing in which institutions and companies in the area work together to exploit the results of research centres, creating services and products designed to improve citizens' lives. A model more unique than rare, which benefits everyone. The research centres, which provide technology for concrete projects. The companies, which have the opportunity to develop new products by exploiting the skills they lack. And public institutions, which can finally see excellence at the service of the common good. The most important field of experimentation is healthcare which is becoming increasingly open, innovative and digital, thanks to open platforms and joint laboratories.
TreC: the opensource platform for citizens and businesses
Health has always represented a fundamental part of the public sphere and a sector where investments in technological research can really make a difference. At the same time, however, it is also a great source of business.
"It is no coincidence that the world's biggest corporations, from Google to Amazon, are launching themselves into it. But how do you put these two things together - services for citizens and opportunities for companies? By building co-innovation labs, in which the technology of research centres and the big data made available by institutions allow companies to build business and earn money, while respecting the needs and requirements of the public. Something not to be taken for granted, not only in Italy but also abroad".
Paolo Traverso, Director of the Center for Information and Communication Technology – ICT at Fondazione Bruno Kessler
In Trentino, in terms of health care, this approach comes from TreC, the Citizens' Clinical Record. It is an electronic platform designed by FBK in collaboration with the Trentino company GPI that allows residents of the Autonomous Province of Trento to connect with the Provincial Health Service and benefit from services related to their health. But not only that. TreC also represents a huge amount of data, which become the input for the projects developed by the Digital Health Competence Centre - TrentinoSalute4.0.
Born in 2017, it is a co-innovation lab composed of the Autonomous Province of Trento (PAT), the Provincial Health System (APSS) and FBK. It aims to promote innovative ICT services in the health field, adopting a user-driven strategy based on the active involvement of end-users. It uses a quadruple helix system approach, through which it consolidates and develops the connections between the most relevant territorial components: institutional, scientific, industrial and social. It also satisfies a market objective, involving companies and promoting the exchange of ideas. The sharing of knowledge and the results of the activities towards the business world points to favour technology transfer, their development and competitiveness at national and international level.
The TrentinoSalute4.0 projects
As we have seen, TrentinoSalute4.0 is a system in which its components need each other to be efficient. And the strength of this model lies right there, in their mutual interdependence.
"FBK is strong on artificial intelligence, for example, but only that is not enough, we need something or someone who is able to use it. With the Citizen's Medical Record we have not found solutions, but we have ensured that data is stored securely and managed by people and not in the belly of a multinational company. Then it is the enterprises that, by working on it within the joint projects of TrentinoSalute4.0, can make the difference".
(Paolo Traverso, ICT Director - FBK)
The projects are both local and European and are divided into six categories: paediatric, school, women's health, senior citizens' health, Trentino health and foreign health. Among them we find for example ValueCare, a digital solution for virtual coaching that supports patients in the self-management of their well-being; KRAKEN, a reliable and secure platform to help citizens manage their personal data; TreC Diabetes, an app capable of integrating artificial intelligence systems and predictive models and that defines the patient care plan.
The hi-tech future of Trentino’s healthcare system live at Web Summit 2020
Trentino Svilippo is one of the "Conference Partner" of the Web Summit 2020, the annual technology conference considered the largest tech event in the world. During the 11th edition of the summit, Paolo Traverso, head of FBK-ICT, will contribute with a masterclass dedicated to this new approach conceived in Trentino for how AI can provide solutions for continuous virtual coaching in relation to chronic diseases, and provide predictive models for pandemic prevention.
