The projects implemented in this area have: led to organisational and technological improvements for the participating companies and public administrations; enabled the formalisation of best practices for implementing process innovations; divulged results of design and excellence of the Politecnico di Milano.
EXAMPLES OF SIGNIFICANT PROJECTS:
Integrated Safe Transfusions
Project funded by the Regione Lombardia (Lombardy Region) for the Regional Blood Plan, and carried out in association with the Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori (IRCCS Foundation - Italian National Cancer Institute) and the largest hospital in Milan A.O. Ospedale Niguarda Ca' Granda. The two-year project, which commenced in September 2007, extended and enhanced a pilot experience conducted in 2006 by the Fondazione Politecnico, HP Italia and with the Italian National Cancer Institute, which addressed the traceability and safety of the process of assignment and transfusion of blood and haemocomponents from the Transfusion Service (SIMT) to the Bone Marrow Transplant (TMO) ward. The results of the project guarantee the safety of transfusions and extensive control of the process by means of an IT system comprising identification with RFID technologies (for transfusion units, patients and operators), portable terminals (PDAs) connected to wireless networks, and the integration of data flows with the hospital IT system and the EMONET transfusion system. Since late 2008 it has been operational in all the inpatient clinical wards at the Italian National Cancer Institute, and since February 2009 it is being used on an experimental basis at a number of pilot wards at the Ospedale Niguarda.
Top Circle e-Government
An initiative funded by HP, with the patronage of CNIPA. The Top Circle e-Government research project focused on the decision-making and implementation problems associated with e-Government, and in particular it focused on: how to govern the innovation process within public administration (PA); the methods of spreading innovation in Italy; taking advantage of the networking potentials of PA as a vehicle for organisational, technological and legislative change; and using the private supplier market to implement the projects. In addition, special attention was devoted to the intranets in PA as a means of change and innovation. One effect of the project was to highlight the role of new technologies as an enabling factor for facilitating evolution at the level of individual bodies and at the level of the "Italy-system", to innovate PA towards greater effectiveness and efficiency of services to the public, and also towards better internal efficiency for individual administrations. The project led to the publication of a book titled "e-Government: the evolution of PA", which collects the work of a year of study and is a useful reference work that is capable of providing a shared vision of the issue by the many and varied players in similar initiatives in Italy.
Aneurisk
Project conducted in association with Siemens Italia, the Dipartimenti di Ingegneria Strutturale, Matematica and Bioingegneria of the Politecnico di Milano (Faculties of Structural Engineering, Mathematics and Bioengineering), together with the Universitą degli Studi di Milano, the Ospedale Maggiore di Milano and the Ospedale Niguarda. Mathematics and neurosurgery teamed up to fight aneurisms: of the many projects that the Fondazione Politecnico began in 2005, one in particular set out to create digital, statistical and mathematical tools for assessing the risk of bursting of cerebral aneurisms. The long-term objective of the project is to develop a new, highly-integrated software package that enables the neurosurgeon, in real time, to use the images produced by 3D angiography and magnetic resonance to obtain the percentage of risk based on statistics. By means of a subsequent digital POI simulation, the examination can be customised and the exact probability of the event's occurring can be calculated.
Support for managing the IT systems of the City of Milan
The Comune di Milano (City of Milan) has entered into a framework agreement with the Fondazione in order to be able to access the cutting-edge technological skills and expertise of the Politecnico in developing and running its IT systems. The project is coordinated by the Fondazione, which acts as an intelligent interface, and in operational terms it is conducted by CEFRIEL.
SOS TEAM
The project was created with the specific intention of improving the means and technologies used in victim rescue operations and it represents an important innovation
in this sector. Up until now, the technological apparatus available to
the Search and Rescue Teams includes multi-channel instruments with
acoustic sensors that can listen to the cries or sounds of survivors.
These are analogue devices that cannot store the signals, and do not
make the most of the potential that digital equipment
can offer in terms of advanced signal processing. The prototype created
therefore implements all of these options and thanks to an automatic localization software that provides in real time the position of the survivor in the three dimensional space, cuts down the search time. The project is funded by Regione Lombardia, through the "Metadistretti 2007" bid application. The partners are: Fondazione Politecnico di Milano, Dipartimento di Ingegneria Strutturale and Dipartimento di Elettronica e Informazione (Faculties of Structural Engineering and Electronics and Information) of the Politecnico di Milano; and three Lombardy SMEs, Solgeo, Aresys, and Boviar.