ADVANCED VIRTUALLY ASSISTED TELEMEDICINE in ADVERSE REMOTENESS (AVATAR)

The popularity of extreme sport and activities in remotes areas is steadily increasing together with the number of participant and correlated diseases per year. Until today all the emergencies in remote areas are, at best, managed by a telephone interview, without any real time physiological data evaluation by the attending physician. This kind of current service shows evident weaknesses: 1. It is based exclusively on a telephone contact 2. There are no automatic mechanisms to intercept and prevent critical situations 3. Is impossible to send automatic alarms in case of need 4. It assumes that the injured has active telephone network coverage 5. It assumes that the injured can actively interact with the emergency alarm center or that other bystanders can do so 6. All the health information is collected by telephone interview without any “real” physiological data obtained by the patient The object of AVATAR: (Advanced Virtually Assisted Telemedicine in Adverse Remoteness), focuses on developing and assembling technologies allowing to monitor, record, transmit, process physiological data, and, as a consequence, provide assistance and guidance by remote control to: bystanders, rescuers, health-care professionals, as well as possibly patients themselves, in case of emergencies in extreme environment such as: diving, high altitude and space. The project aims at providing real time physiological and environmental information from remote areas and to develop specific algorithms to elaborate this information to permit a more accurate management of accidents in remote areas, based on an advanced bidirectional telemedicine concept. The final goal, and also the original challenge of AVATAR, could be to realize a dedicated international control center able to receive and manage physiological and environmental data received from remote areas and, supported by customized wearable technology, augmented and virtual reality and exposure monitoring electronic devices, to provide appropriate instructions to assist accident victims supported by real-time medical, environmental and exposure information. During the three years of Ph.D we developing and assembling devices allowing to monitor, recording and transmit physiological and environmental data and developing the data base, the algorithms and the software allowing the AVATAR system function. To permit a correct interpretation of remotely collected data we also developing physiological scientific protocols to investigate the body adaptation to extreme environment.