Franco Chiarugi
Research Interests
- eHealth/mHealth and chronic care management platforms,
- telemedicine and vital sign telemonitoring,
- home care platforms,
- emergency care and pre-hospital information systems,
- clinical decision support systems,
- workflow management systems,
- communication protocols,
- bio-signal processing,
- implementation and development of interoperability standards in the health domain,
- standards, norms and directives for design and seamless integration of medical devices,
- electrocardiography and standards for its computerization
Awards
- The study reported in the paper “Predicting the Occurrence of Acute Hypotensive Episodes: The PhysioNet Challenge” by F. Chiarugi, I. Karatzanis, V. Sakkalis, I. Tsamardinos, Th. Dermitzaki, M. Foukarakis, G. Vrouchos attained 100% in the event 1 of the PhysioNet Challenge 2009 “Predicting Acute Hypotensive Episodes” at the Computers in Cardiology 2009 (CiC 2009) Conference, Sep 2009, Park City, UT, USA.
- The paper “ECG Spectral Analysis to Predict Spontaneous Termination of Atrial Fibrillation” by M. Varanini, D. Menicucci, F. Cantini, F. Conforti, F. Chiarugi, R. Balocchi won the “Poster Prize for the Best Presentation in Content and Layout” at the WE-Heraeus-Seminar on Cardiovascular Physics, May 2005, Bad Honnef, Germany.
- The study reported in the paper “Predicting the End of an Atrial Fibrillation Episode: The PhysioNet Challenge” by F. Cantini, F. Conforti, M. Varanini, F. Chiarugi, G. Vrouchos won 3 out of the 4 prizes in the PhysioNet Challenge 2004 “Spontaneous termination of atrial fibrillation” at the Computers in Cardiology 2004 (CiC 2004) Conference, Sep 2004, Chicago, IL, USA.
- The poster “ECG in Your Hands: A Multi-Vendor ECG Viewer for Personal Digital Assistants” by F. Chiarugi, M. Spanakis, P.J. Lees, C.E. Chronaki, M. Tsiknakis and S.C. Orphanoudakis received the best poster award at the Computers in Cardiology 2003 (CiC 2003) Conference, Sept 2003, Chalkidiki, Thessaloniki, Greece.
- The regional health information network of Crete “HYGEIAnet” was selected a finalist (among more than 180 contenders) at the ministerial conference and exhibition eHealth 2003, and received an honorary mention (the second prize in the Regional Health Information networks category), May 2003, Brussels, Belgium.
Participation in Research Projects
Notable research and technological development projects that Mrs Chronaki was a major contributor or project manager (scientific responsible) after 2000, are:
- REACTION, Remote accessibility to diabetes management and therapy in operational healthcare networks, FP7-IP-2009-248590 2010-2014, (Scientific coordinator on behalf of the Computational Medicine Laboratory, integration of a platform for long term management of diabetes through contextualized blood glucose monitoring, monitoring and prediction of related disease indicators, education on life style factors such as obesity and exercise and, ultimately, automated closed-loop delivery of insulin).
- HEARTFAID, A knowledge based platform of services for supporting medical - clinical management of heart failure within elderly population, FP6-STREP-2005-027107 2006-2009, (Scientific coordinator on behalf of the Computational Medicine Laboratory, 2007-2009, home care platform for the support of heart failure patients / seamless integration of several home medical devices).
- HEALTHWARE, Standard and interoperable satellite solution to deploy healthcare services over wide areas, FP6-IP-SIP4-CT-2004-516171 2005-2008, (delivery of sustainable end to end healthcare services / remote medical education in emergency care).
- TWISTER, Terrestrial wireless infrastructure integrated with satellite telecommunications for e-rural applications, FP6-IST-IP/Integrating and strengthening the ERA 2004-2007, (connection via wireless services or satellite of remote medical offices with the primary care centres in Crete and Southern Aegean islands and provision of comprehensive medical education and EHR services).
- eu-DOMAIN, Enabling users for distance-working & organizational mobility using ambient intelligence service networks, FP6-IST-2-2003-004420 2004-2007, (Technical coordinator on behalf of the Computational Medicine Laboratory, 2005-2007, development of eHealth services for interconnecting people, devices, buildings and content in an interoperable network / seamless integration of medical devices).
- OpenECG, Standards and interoperability in digital electrocardiography, FP5-IST-2001-377011 2002-2004, (creation of an online world-wide community, with more than 2000 members in 71 countries, to promote open standards for electrocardiographs).
- EMISPHER, Euro-mediterranean Internet-satellite platform for health, medical education and research, FP5-EuMEDIS 2002-2004, (provision of an integrated Internet and Satellite platform dedicated to health applications / real-time applications for remote expertise and second opinion).
- JUST, JUST-in-time health emergency interventions - training of non-professionals by virtual reality and advanced IT tool, FP5-IST-1999-12581 2000-2003, (training of non-professional health emergency operators by using advanced IT tools).
- PICNIC, Professionals and citizens network for integrated care, FP5-IST-1999-10345 2000-2003, (integrated medical collaboration service / pilot telecardiology application).
- ATTRACT, Applications in telemedicine taking rapid advantage of cable television network evolution, FP5-Telematics 2C 1998-2001, (provision of cost-effective care to patients at home / home care platform for the support of patients with respiratory problems).
- HYGEIANET, Crete-A telematics center, INTERREG II 1998-2001, (deployment at a large scale of advanced multi-sectorial telematics applications and services in the health domain / evaluation of their cost/benefit and cost effectiveness).
Short CV
Franco Chiarugi holds a B.Sc. and a M.Sc. in Electronic Engineering in 1983 from the University of Pisa, Italy and the qualification to practice as an engineer (1983). He has been working in the field of biomedical engineering for more than 20 years (in industries and research centres) with special focus to communication protocols, seamless integration of medical devices in healthcare information systems, bio-signal processing, biomedical predictive models, clinical decision support systems, and implementation and development of interoperability standards in the health domain. In 1999, he joined the Computational Medicine Laboratory (CML) at the Institute of Computer Science of FORTH, where he is currently a senior technical staff member. He has contributed to several national or EU funded projects working on a large spread of healthcare information systems including teleconsultation systems, homecare platforms, emergency care and clinical information systems. Recently, he has been the scientific coordinator of an IST FP6 STREP project (HEARTFAID - A knowledge based platform of services for supporting medical - clinical management of heart failure within elderly population) focusing on the development of innovative and effective ICT solutions for supporting remotely heart failure patients. Currently he is the scientific coordinator of an IST FP7 IP project (REACTION, Remote accessibility to diabetes management and therapy in operational healthcare networks). He has published more than 70 papers in international journals and conference proceedings related to his fields of expertise.
