Presentation of the lines of work of the Observatory of Innovation of Digital Medical Imagery

Fundació TIC Salut Social is developing the Observatory of Innovation in Digital Medical Imagery as part of the Digital Medical Imagery System of Catalonia (SIMDCAT).

A project developed as part of the Health Plan 2016-2020 and which CatSalut, in agreement with the Catalan Health Department, is implementing to draw on the potential offered by Cloud-computing in the secure storage and sharing of information, in order to improve the management of digital medical images.

Fundació TIC Salut Social is a benchmark in health innovation in the Catalan Health System, and will develop a new specific line of work within the Observatory to seek new innovation services in Digital Medical Imagery.

It will be structured in different lines of work in order to give the sector a general view of the new innovation models.

One of the tasks of the Observatory is to generate suggested services to bring into the system, in which priority is given to the contents of the following lines of work:

1. Artificial Intelligence (Deep-Learning and Machine-Learning): With the SIMDCAT project, a cloud environment will be available focused on all digital medical imagery in Catalonia, which opens the door to the application of Machine and Deep Learning processes and algorithms. The learning capacity in the medical image data process allows algorithms to be made to improve the care.
2. Predictive diagnosis:  The predictive algorithms applied to the systems of support to clinical decision-making are an improvement in the decision-making of health professionals and have a direct impact on the improvement of health and the results of healthcare centres. The application of medical imagery in the environment is one of the areas where these support techniques can be applied.
3. New models of image treatment in non-radiological environments, focused on Digital Pathology and Dermatology, integrating this information in the digital medical imagery systems where they can benefit from all tools available, allow a new model to be started in the treatment of information to make the diagnosis.
4. Virtual libraries for e-Training: With the bank of images available, access is to be given to a new variety of training resources so that healthcare professionals, teachers, students, etc. can easily consult and access the stored images for training and research.
5. Tools of ongoing training for professionals: The medical imagery information allows teaching and research services to be generated, which along with the virtual library will promote the creation of new training resources with the collaboration of the different players.

The creation of the Observatory is intended to generate a place for the whole of the Catalan Health System, with new knowledge, and to allow contact between the different players involved. This is why Fundació TIC Salut Social develops actions to draw in the different initiatives that you want to send. We will shortly issue a survey to gather the topics of interest, we will continue to report on the different lines of work of the Observatory and will inform you of how to contact us to be able to take part.