The need for an integrated solution
The idea came from the need to provide healthcare facilities and patients with the most suitable tools to fight Covid19, also facing the patients’ post-hospitalization phase, taking care of them even once they have left the healthcare facility.
The system, in fact, on the one hand, allows to trace the chain of contagion and block it, on the other hand, it monitors Covid patients at home, facilitating their interaction even with the family doctor using telemedicine.
In fact, Telemachus is based on a hub-and-spoke organizational model, which implies interaction between patients, doctors, and health authorities. Doctors monitor patients and provide remote medical care, while health authorities coordinate with doctors to provide patients with more intensive healthcare services.
The Telemachus system: wearable, app and dashboard
The Telemachus system consists of a:
- smart bracelet that detects the vital parameters of patients, and enables indoor tracking of inpatients and outdoor of discharged patients.
- an app for patients and doctors that makes teleconsultation possible.
- and an advanced dashboard for doctors and health facilities, which allows the spread of infections to be monitored in an aggregate and anonymized manner, and coordinate in the best possible way and provide the assistance services requested.
The Telemachus bracelet allows to detect heart rate, body temperature, blood oxygenation (SpO2) and ECG (electrocardiogram), and it’s also equipped with Bluetooth and GNSS connectivity.
Its innovative technology has allowed it to be certified as a Class II a medical device, with the future prospect of commercialization not only in hospitals: there are in fact different perspectives for the application of the system, which go beyond telemedicine and give an idea of a possible application also in the field of tourism and safety at work.
The partners of the project
The Telemachus project starts from the “Space in Response to COVID-19 Outbreak in Italy” funding opportunity, co-funded by ESA (European Space Agency) to support proposals for resolution of the serious pandemic problem that has hit Europe and especially Italy.
The call, also funded and partly promoted by the Italian Ministry of Technological Innovation and Digitization, was intended to promote projects that, through aerospace technologies, propose innovative solutions in the fields of healthcare or education.
Our consortium submitted its proposal, led by the lead partner G-nous, an Apulian company that deals with the application of space solutions, which involved the Polytechnic of Bari as scientific coordinator and five companies from southern Italy, each engaged in the realization of different components of the system.
The app and the dashboard were developed by Aulab, coding factory dedicated to the programming world, while Nextome developed the indoor positioning system and SensorID , a leading company in electronic design, handle the sensors and the communication aspects of the system. Finally, SaniLab Plus deals with the aspects of interaction with doctors and consultation of the system.
BionIT Labs®’ contribution to Telemachus
Our company, which has dedicated an internal team thanks also to the support of GrecoLab – Ing. Matteo Greco, has designed the mechanics of the wearable bracelet, with a particular focus on the use of biocompatible and sanitizable materials, and on a waterproof structure with high structural resistance that allows optimal use during all the main actions of daily life.
In the design phase, great importance was given to the shape of the device, in order to ensure a cohesive and consistent sensors’ reading, and to the user interface, to achieve high usability, through a LED membrane that facilitates the use for doctors and patients.
The Telemachus test phase supplied to the ASL of Bari and the Policlinico Riuniti of Foggia
The project is now taking the first application’s steps in the field, thanks to the testing phase undertaken in recent weeks at the ASL of Bari and the Ospedale Riuniti of Foggia.
The first structure, with the support of epidemiological experts, chose the patients to be monitored. This system allows, even later, the application of continuous patient assistance, also applicable to other diseases.
In Foggia, the infections detected within the hospital are monitored. In this case, the device makes a systematic monitoring of the structure to avoid outbreaks, effectively lightening the work of hospital departments, extremely overworked due to the pandemic.
The collected data will later be processed by G-nous, through artificial intelligence tools, with the aim of developing predictive models that can further increase the usefulness of the system: Telemachus, in the future, will not be limited to monitoring the Covid-19 pandemic, but also to fight other diseases that today cause serious problems to thousands of people around the world.
With BionIT Labs® we are proud to collaborate with other similar realities of our area, which share with us the goal of exploiting technology to concretely improve patients’ quality of life.
For more information on the Telemachus system, visit the official website of the project: https://telemachus.eu
Press review
Find out more on the press review of the updates of the Telemachus project by reading the following articles:
