Dubai – The future starts here. As Official Gold Sponsor of the Italy Pavilion, the Bracco Group will be among the companies featured in Health and Wellness Week, one of the ten thematic events at Expo 2020 Dubai. It will do so with an invitation to “look beyond”, with major initiatives aimed at enhancing the Italian model of research in the field of life sciences. Entitled #BeyondLifeSciences, the Diana Bracco-led Group, a global leader in diagnostic imaging, will shine the spotlight at the global meeting place of the World Expo on the latest discoveries in medical research and scientific innovation. Cutting-edge solutions in the field of health, safety and prevention will be presented, taking the application of artificial intelligence to diagnostic imaging as a starting point.
“Expo 2020 Dubai has reaffirmed the centrality of life sciences in the current economic and social context and the need to move in a collaborative, public-private, and multilateral approach. Our partnership with the Bracco Group enables us to bring the somewhat unique Italian model of science and expertise to the debate and discussion of experiences that we are hosting and facilitating these few months,” said the Commissioner-General for Italy at Expo Dubai, Paolo Glisenti.
On January 31 Diana Bracco, acting as President of the Advanced Life Sciences in Italy (ALISEI) National Cluster, will open the first Global Health & Innovation Forum, organized by ALISEI at Expo 2020 Dubai. It will feature internationally renowned institutional and scientific speakers such as: Maria Cristina Messa, Italian Minister of University and Research; Sara Al Amiri, UAE Minister of Science and Advanced Technology; Maria Cristina Russo, Director for Global Approach & International Cooperation in R&I at the European Commission. The keynote speaker will be Professor Sir Mark Caulfield, CEO of Barts Life Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, who will talk about “Precision Medicine – transforming healthcare” together with Ilaria Capua, Director of the One Health Centre of Excellence, University of Florida. During the second part of the Forum, a round table discussion will be held with other eminent speakers such as: Paola Testori Coggi, T20 Italy, Global Health & Covid Task Force; Lorenzo Wittum, Representative of B20 Italy, Health & Life Sciences Task Force; and Smita Srinivas, National Center for Biological Sciences, Tata Research Institute, India.
“As we all know, the world has changed radically since the Covid-19 pandemic began,” stated Diana Bracco, President of the ALISEI Cluster and Chairman & CEO of the Bracco Group. “Facing the crisis has been an unprecedented challenge in terms of health and society, with very high human and economic costs. However, it has also represented a turning point, finally putting health at the center of social and economic planning for the future at a national and international level. This international meeting aims to provide a platform for joint discussion of the advances in medical science and technology and their crucial role in promoting the sustainability and resilience of health systems, in both advanced and developing countries. The challenge is now to keep moving forward by initiating a profound change in the way we all look at research and healthcare.” Diana Bracco concluded: “I would like to remind you that the intention at ALISEI is to transform the Global Forum into an annual event to take regular stock of the new frontiers of innovation in the field of Health & Life Sciences.”
On February 1, again at the Italy Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai, the UAE, Israel and Italy have organized another major event focused on the theme of “Artificial Intelligence & Cybersecurity for Human Health”. The speakers will include H.E. Roberto Speranza, Italian Minister of Health; H.E. Omar Sultan Al Olama, UAE Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Economy; and H.E. Nitzan Horowitz, Israeli Minister of Health. An opportunity to discuss crucial issues such as the geopolitical impact on the security of health data and how fair, ethical and secure AI technologies can serve human needs.
Within the framework of this international meeting, the Bracco Group has organized a workshop dedicated to Intelligent Imaging, with the participation of an exceptional expert: the U.S. professor Charles Kahn. The workshop will also illustrate AIforCOVID, the not-for-profit multicenter research project conducted by Bracco Imaging and the Centro Diagnostico Italiano (Italian Diagnostics Center), the healthcare facility of the Group led by Diana Bracco. The aim of the project is to predict the clinical evolution of COVID-19, using the AI-for-COVID Imaging Archive, which already contains thousands of radiology investigations and is available to the entire international scientific community.
Based on artificial intelligence applied to diagnostic imaging, the project is providing physicians and healthcare professionals with a database of radiographic images of Covid patients. These images are useful to understand the future progression of the disease in patients with COVID-19, for personalized and prompt therapies. The data is analyzed using algorithms developed in collaboration with the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Genoa and the Università Campus Bio-medico in Rome. Since the outset, the AI-for-COVID Imaging Archive (https://aiforcovid.radiomica.it/) has been cooperating with major public and private clinical and research centers such as: the research hospital foundations Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico (Milan) and Fondazione IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo (Pavia); the university hospital Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Careggi (Florence); the local social and healthcare authorities ASST Santi Paolo e Carlo (Milan), ASST Fatebenefratelli-Sacco (Milan), ASST Ospedale San Gerardo (Monza); and the Ospedale Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza hospital (San Giovanni Rotondo).
“Radiological imaging is playing a crucial role in the diagnosis of COVID-19 patients and in determining therapeutic options,” explained Sergio Papa, Director of Diagnostic Imaging at the Centro Diagnostico Italiano. “Together, radiomics and genomics represent a new frontier of personalized medicine, and have enabled us to make a concrete contribution in practice in the fight against the horrors of the ongoing pandemic. The benefits of our AI-for-COVID project include further impetus to the development of studies on Covid-induced conditions, in particular the damage caused to the lungs, and the implementation of measures aimed at protecting individuals who are more susceptible to severe disease as a result of previous comorbidities.”
“The joint efforts of the hospitals in the network coordinated by CDI-Bracco Imaging has resulted in the very rapid transfer of the information acquired in the field into an extremely powerful AI system,” stated Lorenzo Preda, Director of the Department of Radiology at the Fondazione IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo in Pavia.
“The project is commendable for giving the radiological scientific community a tool with a high volume of data from large Italian facilities working to manage the pandemic,” stated Annalisa Simeone, Director of the Department of Radiology at the IRCCS Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza in San Giovanni Rotondo.
“In the COVID-19 pandemic, the role of the radiologist and radiological imaging techniques – especially X-ray and CT – have proved essential,” stated Michaela Cellina, a radiologist at Fatebenefratelli Sacco in Milan. “In the scenario we have found ourselves working in, with overcrowded emergency rooms, and very long technical times to obtain results from swabs, radiological imaging represented the first – and a fundamental – tool in deciding on patient diagnosis and management. Radiologists’ commitment to this emergency has been commendable, and the development of multicenter studies with data sharing and direct clinical experience has markedly accelerated the development of effective weapons to fight this battle, which is still ongoing.”
During Health and Wellness Week, which will include numerous other events and conferences dedicated to the medicine of the future, nutraceuticals and wellness & nutrition, visitors to Expo 2020 Dubai will also have the opportunity to admire “The Beauty of Imaging”, the Bracco Group’s large multimedia installation at the Italy Pavilion. An imaginative portal that offers a vibrant journey through the latest innovations in diagnostics. Designed and created for Bracco by the Giò Forma, Mauro Belloni and Cromazoo studios, “The Beauty of Imaging” can be seen on the ground floor, next to the vegetable patches, and enables visitors to discover the beauty of the human body seen from the inside.
