ABSTRACT
This contribution describes some activities promoted by a group of roboticists from Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia and Università di Pisa in response to the pandemic. In particular, a “do-it-yourself” (DIY) open-source service and related hardware/products will be illustrated to help combat some consequences of the Covid 19 emergency. The project was born to facilitate communication between patients isolated in Covid 19 hospitals’ ward and their relatives. The teleoperated robot named LHF Connect can move autonomously around the hospital. Once it arrives at each patient's bed, it can provide a video call between patients and their relatives or friends outside the isolated hospital ward. In this scenario, the robot is piloted by a volunteer operator working from home or in a safe room inside the hospital. The teleoperator will guide LHF Connect toward each patient's bed using a laptop or a smartphone. LHF Connect is an open-source platform that leverages mature robotics technologies designed to be easily reproducible even in extreme conditions such as lockdown situations. The platform was reproduced during the first pandemic outbreak in Europe by other people independently, and it has been tested by medical staff in real scenarios and isolated Covid 19 departments. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
ABSTRACT
This contribution describes a case study of a "do-it-yourself" (DIY) opensource service and related product to help combating the COVID-19 emergency. It illustrates the birth of LHF Connect, a project designed to facilitate communication between patients isolated in COVID-19 hospitals' ward and their relatives. LHF Connect is a teleoperated robot that can move in autonomy around the hospital. A User Centered Design approach, methods and specific tools helped in managing crucial steps of the design process such as i) the collection of needs coming from the context, stakeholders and end-users;ii) defining the service blueprint;iii) imagining finishing concepts;and iv) managing the communication activities. The initiative has been promoted by a multidisciplinary team of researchers (mainly roboticists with the help of specific competences coming from Design discipline). © 2020 Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Cytokine storm, endothelial cell and complement activation, and hypercoagulability are implicated in the process of worsening in patients with Covid-19. Predisposing risk factors for severe Covid-19 are male gender, underlying cardiovascular disease or cardiovascular risk factors (including diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, and advanced age). Venous thromboembolism is also a risk factor for deterioration of Covid-19 and is independently related to mortality. The VAS foundation (European Independent Foundation in Angiology/ Vascular Medicine) has presented an integral strategy for the management of patients with vascular diseases or cardiovascular risk factors and proposes the prevention of infection by SARS-CoV-2, the detection of patients with Covid-19 at high risk of disease worsening and the anticipation of vascular complications related to cytokine storm and hypercoagulability. This approach should help to control the vascular complications of Covid-19 and could contribute to the reduction of the flow of patients towards hospitalization, especially in ICU. The preventiondetection-anticipation strategy includes: (i) the organization of the Covid-19 network at the level of the primary health care system to protect as a priority from infection people with pathologies or worsening risk factors of disease;(ii) the development of a simple and easily applicable methodology for early identification of patients at high risk of worsening Covid-19 and for the prioritization of these patients for more specific and targeted medical care;(iii) the adaptation of antithrombotic therapy in hospitalized patients and prevention of thrombotic complications in patients after discharge from hospital.