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Università degli Studi di Trieste - DEEI
via A. Valerio 10, 34127 Trieste (Italy)
+39 040 5583410
segrdeei@units.it
Prof. Walter Ukovich, dott. Stefano Mininel, dott. Federica Vatta
The University of Trieste (www.units.it) features a strong research and education & training of excellence in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). It is a nucleus within the “Trieste System” with a continuous growing of national and international institutions and high-tech companies around the university and the Area Research Park (www.area.it).
The Department of Electrotechnics, Electronics and Informatics (DEEI) (www.deei.units.it) has launched and coordinated most of the e-society activities of the University of Trieste, from extended networking (metropolitan, regional, national, trans-national) to e-integration through e-learning, e-business, e-logistics, e-health, e-government etc. In the last eight years the group involved in the Tri-ICT project has promoted many Consortia and European networks (e.g., the Adria-Danubio Consortium for the Corridor V, the Virtual University of Adriatic-Ionian Basin UNIADRION (www.uniadrion.net) , the Central and Eastern European University Network CEI-UN, the AlpeAdria University Initiative ALADIN (www.aladin.units.it), the Alpe-Adria Cooperative E-learning Space, the Living-Lab-based Open-Three (O3) Consortium (www.o3consortium.eu) and the O3-Enterprise spinoff (www.o3enterprise.eu), which deals with the three dimensions of the “wellbeing” EU policy.
Due to its particular geographical position and to the very long tradition of Trieste as an “European integrator”, the University of Trieste has reinforced in the last decades its specialization toward research and education & training of excellence particularly in the fields of largest interest for the transitional countries of the Central and South-East Europe, working for the building up of the 27-countries today’s Europe and for the IST-based integration of the 40-countries Enlarged Europe.
In this action, a strongly synergic effect has had and has the continuous growing of national and international institutions and high-tech companies around the University of Trieste and the Area Research Park (www.area.ts.it), which are globally known as the Trieste System: the International Center for Theoretical Physics – ICTP, the International School for Advanced Studies – ISAS (currently an independent University), the International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology – ICGEB, the International Center for Science and High Technology – ICS, the Elettra Synchrotron, and many other institutions and hi-tech companies (see www.area.ts.it “companies, institutions & labs”) working in the fields of biotechnology, bioengineering, neuroscience, information and communication technology, agriculture, sustainable development, economics, etc.
Still today, in all the institutions of Trieste, professors and researchers from the University and from the other institutions work tightly together.
This unique feature of the Trieste System, allows a very good level of research, but also a strong offer of academic education and training in most of the fields covered by research, either for professional or R&D formation. Trieste has today a research concentration (national, international and world-wide) 15 times that of the European mean. The integrated environment allows the University of Trieste to offer, with the synergy of the other Institutions and companies, personalized education and training to institutions, companies and governments of the near countries, in particular to those of the CEI/SEE Region.
At DEEI, the Operations Research Laboratory (ORTS) (www2.units.it/~orts/) and Studi Superiori di Ingegneria Clinica - Higher Education in Clinical Engineering (SSIC-HECE) (www.ssic.units.it), headed by prof. Walter Ukovich, have launched and currently coordinate most of the e-society activities of the University of Trieste, from e-logistics to e-health, e-learning, e-government and many other cooperative researches have been experimented and fully adopted as innovative services. DEEI deals with about one hundred research projects in the field of Electrical and Information Engineering (including Bio and Health Engineering, Telecommunication, Automation and Control, Engineering Management and Computer Science). DEEI currently manages many EC projects of different types like STREP, CA, NOE, COST, INTERREG, etc.
In the last ten years, ORTS developed research projects in the fields of Operations Research, Optimization Models and Algorithms, Industrial and Distribution Logistics, Production Planning and Control, Logistic Chain Modelling and Control, Transportation Modelling, Planning and Management, Public and Controlled Market Tariff Systems, Autonomous Agent Protocols, Innovation Models and Efficiency Evaluation. SSIC-HECE has promoted many Consortia and European networks, as the AlpeAdria University Initiative (ALADIN), the INTERREG Italian-Slovenian Cooperative E-learning Space (ISCELS), the e-health Open-Three Consortium, and many others.
Finally, a 14-years experience of teaching Clinical Engineering at high level in Europe, has allowed SSIC-HECE to build up the e-learning-based Higher Education in Clinical Engineering (HECE) program (www.ssic.units.it). Under the auspices of the Intergovernmental Central European Initiative University Network CEI UN, SSIC-HECE also promotes an annual Spring School on "ICT, economical and organizational issues for e-health integration in the enlarged Europe", an International School on the topics of Health integration in the European Union, which allows every year the meeting of students and teachers from more than 9 European countries.
DEEI is currently coordinating the 4e-4Health initiative (http://www.tbs.units.it/PRG/4e-4h/index.htm), addressing the theme of how we can reach the goal, in the view of European integration, of an improved Healthcare thanks to eHealth, which is one of the major challenges for all European Healthcare Systems. The initiative is organized in cooperation with the Higher Education in Clinical Engineering (SSIC-HECE), the Italian Society for Quality of Healthcare (SIQAS), and many industrial partners in the e-health field especially in Region Friuli Venezia Giulia.
eHealth (also known as ICT for Health) envisions the information and communication technologies at the service of a wide range of professionals in the field of healthcare, as doctors, health managers, health professionals, social workers and welfare officers; above all, these technologies are put to the service of users, patients and citizens, making health care more citizen-centric.
In such an articulated and critical scenario, now the citizens-users must play an active role in innovation, influencing these processes, research and development of new products and services. The ideal tool for this are the "Living Labs" or "platforms for innovation", metaphorically seen as "gardens of ideas" in which gardeners are the above cited professionals that ensure that good ideas have the opportunity to grow quickly through complementary contributions to test their potential value for both the company and for users.
The European Countries, in addition to the research and development programmes in eHealth, have currently the objective of sharing and integrating their health policies to create an European eHealth Area, according to the European Action Plan on eHealth, which is fundamental in the i2010 strategy of the European Union. This integration is designed to improve the safety and quality of Healthcare and especially its usability by the citizens, stimulating at the same time the growth in an innovative and promising industry field.
The Friuli Venezia Giulia region, which has always been one of the first promoters of innovation in Health, with the neighbouring Austria, Slovenia and Croatia, can in turn become a kind of Living Lab to carry out a process of innovation and integration of their respective Healthcare systems through eHealth, in a cross-border management of Health that may ultimately constitute a possible model for the whole European Healthcare System.
This initiative is designed to promote this process of innovation and integration, directed to all citizens, thanks to the active participation of public administration and industry, in the fields of Healthcare, ICT, e-health and e-government, in a cross-border management view of Healthcare that could be a possible model for European Healthcare Systems.
The next world event will be organized in Venice, with the IEEE Workshop on Health Care Management WHCM 2010 (www.deei.units.it/WHCM2010/), planned on February 18-20, 2010.
