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INNOVATION IN HEALTHCARE
AND HEALTH EDUCATION

Welcome

Health Professions Education is changing rapidly in most countries and the recent digital push given by the COVID-19 tragedy is accelerating the process. Topics like simulation, machine learning and artificial intelligence, digitalization, big data are becoming more and more important.

Previous Webinars organized in collaboration with AAHCI

Webinar: Innovations in Health Care Technologies: AI, Telemedicine, and Consumer Wearables
[Held on March 30, 2023]

 
AAHCI Webinar Series | Innovation in Health Professions Education
 
 
AAHCI European Regional Office host, the University of Zurich, Faculty of Medicine, co-hosted a webinar focused on The PERMIT Recommendations: Adopting Best Practices in Personalized Medicine Research, on December 16, 2022.

AAHCI Regional Ambassador, Prof. Luciano Saso from the Faculty of Pharmacy and Medicine at the Sapienza University of Rome facilitated this webinar that provided different perspectives from Alliance and AAHCI members on how research and innovation in personalized medicine are being adapted into clinical practices. Common challenges, strategies, and best practices were shared with participants from senior leadership of academic health centers. View the webinar here.
Click here to download program.

In collaboration with M8 Alliance and Astrazeneca https://www.astrazeneca.com/

https://www.worldhealthsummit.org/regional-meeting/2022-italy.html

Friday 17 June 2022 10:30 – 12:00

Session DT 5 of the WORLD HEALTH SUMMIT REGIONAL MEETING 2022

Rising to the challenge of delivering precision medicines for chronic diseases

For decades scientists have studied the causes of disease; the interplay between genes, molecular drivers and the environment. Precision medicines – targeting the right medicine to the right patient at the right time – have revolutionised the treatment of some cancers and rare genetic diseases, yet precision medicines for chronic diseases are far less common. The challenge we face is that chronic diseases are biologically complex and driven by multiple mechanisms. They are heterogenous with an array of different symptoms and comorbidities. Today, diagnosis relies on clinical symptoms and standard body fluid biomarkers, with tests often limited, imprecise and late in disease progression. To improve patient outcomes, we must move beyond the current standard of care in which many patients are treated the same and towards the possibility of targeting treatments to specific and earlier disease states. Hear from industry, biotech, EFPIA and clinical experts on the potential for precision medicines to transform care in complex chronic diseases and what initiatives could be implemented across regulatory, financing and clinical pathways to embed these into daily are for people with chronic diseases.

Open Video
Chairpersons:
Maria Orr , Luciano Saso

  • Claudia Dollins

    Executive Director, Global Regulatory Affairs Team, Precision Medicine and Companion Diagnostics, Bristol-Myers Squibb
  • Richard Kennedy

    Global Vice President and Medical Director, Almac Diagnostic Services
  • Menelas Pangalos

    Executice Vice-President, R&D BioPharmaceuticals, AstraZeneca
  • Stefano Vella

    Italian Delegate to Horizon Europe (Health Cluster) European Commission
  • Stephen Matlin

    Visiting Professor in the Institute of Global Health Innovation, Imperial

In collaboration with M8 Alliance

https://www.worldhealthsummit.org/regional-meeting/2022-italy.html

Thursday 16 June 2022 11:00 – 12:30

Session DT 3 of the WORLD HEALTH SUMMIT REGIONAL MEETING 2022

New Frontiers in Healthcare Promotion

Changes in climate constitute a reality which has observable effects on respiratory health. Extreme climate events, forest fires, dust storms, increased level of circulating aeroallergens as well as poor air quality represent a massive threat to respiratory health. Respiratory health issues are exacerbated by the climate crisis which is putting vulnerable people at most risk and is set to further worsen inequality in our society. Protecting respiratory health is becoming an urgent public health and sustainability priority and it goes far beyond air pollution. A call for action is, therefore, needed not only to treat the symptoms of the crisis through products, but also when addressing the root causes. Governments, regulators, the scientific community and patients along with the biopharmaceutical industry can and should focus efforts on increasing awareness while triggering urgent action on climate change.

Open Video
Chairpersons:
Carlo Martuscelli , Luciano Saso

  • Climate change and impact on respiratory diseases: how to balance patient and planet health

    Isabella Annesi Maesano
    Research director INSERM and professor of Environmental epidemiology, Montpellier University, France

  • Sara Cerdas
    Member of the European Parliament

  • Alessandro Chiesi
    Chief Commercial Officer, Chiesi Group

  • Susanna Palkonen
    Director, European Federation of Allergy and Airways Diseases

  • Omar Usmani
    Professor of Respiratory Medicine, National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, UK

  • Stephen Matlin
    Visiting Professor in the Institute of Global Health Innovation, Imperial

Innovative Medical Education in the Digital Era
VIRTUAL SYMPOSIUM
Tuesday, 8th February 2022

In cooperation with McGrawHill

Agenda & Speakers_IMEDE 2022

AACHI Bios and Abstracts


  • Jacques Demotes
    , Director General, European Clinical Research Infrastructure Network (ECRIN), Paris, France

  • Rita Banzi
    – Head of the Center for Health regulatory Policies at the Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri in Milan, Italy

  • Judit Subirana-Mirete
    , Postdoctoral researcher at the Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Deu in Barcelona, Spain

  • Josep Maria Haro
     – Research and Innovation Director of Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu in Barcelona, Spain

  • Enrico Glaab
     – Assistant professor / Senior research scientist in Machine Learning and Bioinformatics at the University of Luxembourg

  • Vibeke Fosse
    – Researcher at the Department of Clinical Science University of Bergen, Norway 

  • Raphaël Porcher
     – Professor of Biostatistics at Université Paris Cité in Paris, France

ABSTRACTS

The PERMIT Project – introduction and rationale behind the project (10 min)
As personalised medicine (PM) continues to rapidly evolve, integrating new and innovative research methods, methodological research is required to ensure the robustness of evidence generated, to support funding decisions by research councils or peer-review by scientific journals, and to ensure the most effective solutions are reaching patients and citizens. The PERMIT project, funded by the European Union’s Research and Innovation Horizon 2020 program (Grant Agreement n° 874825) was designed to develop a set of methodological recommendations to support investigators, evaluators, peer-reviewers, regulators and other stakeholders involved in designing, funding, conducting, publishing and validating PM research. With a multinational consortium, composed of all key stakeholders of the PM research ecosystem, it strove to include all of the relevant perspectives in the joint development of the recommendations.
Methodology – general approach for developing the PERMIT recommendations (10 min)
A common methodological framework was followed for the development of the recommendations. It was designed to be thorough, but flexible, to accommodate the specificities of each of the four identified stages of the PM research pipeline. The approach consisted of four phases, beginning with the collection of background information through scoping reviews and a gap analysis. Findings of the gap analysis were then discussed in the development phase, where working sessions and workshops with field experts took place. The draft recommendations from this phase moved on to the finalization phase where consensus on the final recommendations was reached. The final phase focused on defining the most appropriate dissemination and implementation strategies and mobilizing efforts to achieve them.
Collection of patients and omics data – methods for data collection and quality, and design of stratification and validation cohorts, gaps and challenges, recommendations and their impact (15 min)
The first stage of the PM research pipeline involves the prospective or retrospective collection and consolidation of patient data. The collection of data including –omics, imaging, clinical, lifestyle, exposome data and more, provides the basis for the stratification of patients sharing a similar profiles into homogenous clusters. The recommendations for this stage were developed in collaboration with field experts, following the mapping of currently used methods used in stroke, cancer and Alzheimer’s PM research. They contribute to better defining the best approach to data generation, integration and curation as well as ensuring data quality. They also help to address the adequate planning for validation of clustering and provide guidance on the calculation of the sample size.
Computational analysis and modelling – machine learning methods for patient stratification, gaps and challenges, recommendations and examples (15 min)
Intricately tied to the first stage, the stratification of patients constitutes the second stage of the PM research pipeline. Discrimination and sub-group characterization of complex and heterogeneous disorders often requires advanced machine learning (ML) analyses to identify multi-variable biomarker signatures, as combinatorial signatures have the potential to provide more robust and accurate stratification models. Successful ML-based patient stratification requires both an adequate prior study design and a suitable choice of data pre-processing, model building and evaluation methods during the study implementation. The recommendations for ML stratification methods cover the planning phase, discovery and modelling phase, and the validation phase. They provide guidance to avoid common pitfalls and help to ensure a robust and reproducible approach is taken.
Translational development for personalised medicine – preclinical models for personalised medicine, gaps and challenges, recommendations and their potential impact (15 min)
Translational development is the third stage of the PM research pipeline. Although much progress has been made in the development of innovative and complex preclinical model systems, fundamental deficits in translational methods still exist, and they prevent the further development of PM. The recommendations for the translational step of the PM research pipeline focus on five areas: 1) clinically relevant translational research; 2) robust model development; 3) transparency and education; 4) revised regulation; and 5) interaction with clinical research and patient engagement. They help to address the identified challenges regarding the lack of standardised protocols, validation procedures and quality assessment practices, as well as the need for more accurate reporting, and reporting of negative results.
Clinical trial for personalised medicine – most commonly used designs for personalised medicine, gaps and challenges, recommendations and examples (15 min)
The evaluation of treatments through clinical trials is the final stage of the PM research pipeline. Innovative and complex designs continue to arise and to be applied to PM research. It is therefore key to ensure that the designs are the most adequate to address the research questions and that they have the capacity to produce robust and reproducible results that can be seamlessly used to make decisions for integration of therapies into care. Four types of recommendations for PM clinical trials were developed: 1) general recommendations on the elements that all PM trials should consider; 2)recommendations for the assessment of personalised vs non-personalised approaches; 3) design-specific recommendations for umbrella, basket and platform designs and 4) topic-specific recommendations to aid in selecting the most adequate trial design depending on the PM research typology.

Featured publications

ASSOCIATION OF ACADEMIC HEALTH CENTERS

Post-COVID Opportunities and Challenges in Healthcare: Equity and Inclusion around the World and Across Cultures

issue 3 / 2021

Innovative Medical Education in the Digital Era