AI improves the Quality of Life for COPD Patients: Avvale at the Forefront of the TOLIFE European Project

Avvale recognizes the transformative potential of technology, capable of shaping and evolving not only the companies operating in the current market context but the world around us as a whole. This is why we have been actively involved for years in participating in European projects such as Horizon Europe, aimed at supporting research and innovation in Europe from 2021 to 2027. The close collaboration with research centers and other companies not only reflects our commitment to excellence but also represents a clear added value. This synergy promotes a dynamic exchange of knowledge and skills, contributing to shaping the future of technological innovation constructively.

In this context, the TOLIFE project is focused on the application of advanced technologies to improve the management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

This condition, widely prevalent globally, exhibits considerable heterogeneity, requiring highly personalized approaches and therapies for treatment. The TOLIFE project aims to tackle this challenge by developing an artificial intelligence (AI)-based solution that analyzes data on patients' daily lives, acquired from non-intrusive sensors. This AI-powered platform will provide advanced tools to help clinicians infer signals that may indicate critical COPD events, supported by transparent and interpretable analyses through eXplainable AI techniques.

The project focuses on two main objectives: providing clinical teams with a tool that offers a clear picture of the patient's health status by considering multiple physiological and psychological parameters, enriching the existing scientific literature, and simultaneously identifying a quantitative strategy to pinpoint risk factors for crisis events. Wearable devices with continuous monitoring provide detailed physiological information, which must be combined with subjective data, further expanding the field of analysis by offering insights into the patient's psychological state and allowing for a more comprehensive approach to patient health management.

The solution, therefore, leverages artificial intelligence to intelligently process specific patient data in their daily lives, collected through non-invasive sensor technologies, for optimized and personalized treatment, identification of potential precursor signals of exacerbations, health status assessment, and quality of life improvement. Applying AI in the medical field is particularly delicate not only due to privacy concerns, as there are strict regulations that must be adhered to, but also because the outputs generated need to be carefully evaluated by the medical team. The transparency of the models is therefore essential; clinicians must have full awareness of the processes that produced a certain output, allowing them to assess the analytical validity of the results.

As mentioned, TOLIFE is among the Horizon Europe projects: the various phases of its implementation will develop over a period of 54 months. Since September 2022, the start date of the project, Avvale has been part of the consortium responsible for development with two teams of professionals based in Italy and Spain. Our primary role in the project focuses on the advanced analytics component, leveraging the latest AI models. While collaborating with other partners to build the data platform, a key component of the project, our responsibility involves the development and implementation of AI solutions. It is essential to integrate the diverse expertise of the consortium to ensure the success of the project, with the utmost attention to data privacy to ensure compliance with regulations and the protection of sensitive information.

Thanks to its active participation in European projects like Horizon Europe, Avvale is committed daily to providing technology and professional expertise to promote excellence in digital innovation. Avvale’s challenge is to continuously push our boundaries, even in a field like healthcare, which is particularly challenging for us. Through collaboration with research centers and projects like TOLIFE, we are paving new ways in the application of artificial intelligence.

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