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4 NEWS 7.10.2021 €1.5 million funds creation of a intelligent warning system for patient care WHEN caring for patients with a crit- ical condition, medical staff need to be able to continuously monitor their vital functions. anks to the MEDIWARN project, a joint collaboration between the the Universita' di Catania, the Uni- versity of Malta and the Policlinico Vittorio Emanuele University Hospi- tal, a continuous monitoring system with an integrated intelligent warning system will allow nursing staff to mon- itor these functions without having to physically be at the bedside at all times. e MEDIWARN project is one of the projects sponsored by the Europe- an Regional Development Fund, cho- sen through the Interreg Italia-Malta. As such, it is a collaboration between the Universita' di Catania (through the Faculty of Engineering), the University of Malta (through the Faculty of Med- icine and Surgery), and the Azienda Ospedaliero - Universitaria Policlinico "G. Rodolico - San Marco" in Catania. e project commenced in July 2017, and is now in its concluding phase. e improved warning system in- cludes the use of advanced fuzzy log- ic to predict when a patient would be about to deteriorate clinically. Hence, the MEDIWARN system would alert nurses and physicians so that they can intervene at an earlier stage, with a higher chance of success of treating a patient and prevent such potentially harmful events. Research shows that in recent years the occupancy rate of the beds has increased, unless there is ad- justment of thow the nursing staff care for each patient, it is inevitable to have a decline in the standard of care. Physicians in Malta and Catania have developed this system together with engineers in Catania. Using clinical ex- pertise, the system interprets clinical parameters to give a score that shows the likelihood of a harmful event. MEDIWARN has been trialled both locally and at Catania, for feasibility and practicality. Analysis of these trials is ongoing and looks to be promising. e innovative monitoring system will acquire, in real time, the vital param- eters of patients through the use of a peripheral sensory system as the com- puter assigned to the ward, equipped with artificial intelligence, will provide a picture of the evolution of the pa- tient's clinical status., furthermore this information will also be sent to mobile media (tablets) in the possession of medical personnel. e research progress was presented at a press conference held on 29 Sep- tember, 2021, where representatives from the University, Mater Dei and other stakeholders were present. University Rector, Prof. Alfred J. Vella said "rough the MEDIWARN pro- ject, the health institutions will sure- ly benefit from better management of medical and nursing staff with a direct impact on the quality of service pro- vided to patients. I am certain that this research will improve the quality that deems necessary for the care of those hospitalised patients who need con- tinuous monitoring and adequate care. e University of Malta will keep its doors open for opportunities , like this, to contribute to a better future in the health industry." Dr Stephen Sciberras, who is part of the researchers team continued by say- ing "MEDIWARN is an excellent op- portunity for a collaboration between different entities, and different spe- cialists. We started with a project that aimed to fill a void we felt was present in our standard care: that of trying to foresee which patients will deteri- orate. We are now at the end of this project having learnt much more than what we anticipated. We are grateful for the opportunity offered to us by the University of Malta, and by Inter- reg Italia-Malta for funding through the European Regional Development Fund. We appreciate the support of the Project Support Office and all ancillary offices in the University, the Ministry of Education, and the European Terri- torial Cooperation Programmes Unit Funds and Programmes Division, who have guided us throughout these 4 years. We would also like to extend our gratitude to Mater Dei and the nurs- ing staff of various wards who helped us collect data necessary to improve MEDIWARN." Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi, Parliamen- tary Secretary for European funds ad- dressed the audience by saying "is project has been bearing fruit since its start in May 2018 and will contin- ue to do so as it reaches its conclusion by the end of 2021. is project will be supporting the healthcare workers to monitor their patients at a distance. is is another project co-financed by European Funds where out of a total of €1.7 million, €1.5 come from European Regional Development Fund. " With the financial input from the Eu- ropean Regional Development Fund, a network of researchers, SMEs, stake- holders and public administrators have been able to expand their research on advancing the health industry to a more efficient level. EC Language Centres has been named Star Chain Language School at the StudtTRavek Awards 2021/21. Over 300 industry organisa- tions joined this event, presenting 24 different categories featuring agencies, language schools, vocational colleges, associations, and service providers. EC and Embassy, which is EC's sister company, now hold a total of 14-star awards, making them the most awarded international chain language school in the world. ese awards together place each school on the ST Super Star Hall of Fame. Andrew Mangion, CEO of EC English, said: "e last 18 months have been an extremely challenging time for our industry, but we at EC remain optimistic about the longer-term future. With all of our 22 schools around the world to- day finally open and borders reopening, we are confident that the industry will bounce back." Maltese-owned school group named Star International Chain Language School

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