Research Institute on Population and Social Policies

AI4Debunk

AI4Debunk

AI4Debunk aims to develop four human-centered AI interfaces, to provide citizens with a comprehensive set of fact-checking resources to navigate the digital media landscape more consciously and make informed decisions.

Funded by the European Union (EU) through the Horizon Europe programme, the project brings together an interdisciplinary consortium of 13 partner institutions from eight countries: University of Latvia (Latvia) – project coordinator, EURACTIV, Pilot4DEV, University of Mons (Belgium) , Internews Ukraine (Ukraine), CNR, University of Florence (Italy), Barcelona Supercomputing Center (Spain), DOTSOFT (Greece), University of Galway, F6S Innovation (Ireland), Utrecht University of Applied Sciences, INNoVaTiVe POWER (Netherlands )

The impacts

In recent years, the proliferation of disinformation has become a major problem across Europe. The pervasive use of the Internet and social media has facilitated the spread of fake news and propaganda, heavily influencing public opinion, as demonstrated during the Covid-19 pandemic and, more recently, the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In this context, a synergistic combination of human efforts and sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) tools is the only sustainable way to effectively combat the “infodemic” and the battle of narratives we are facing.

By promoting transparency, accuracy and responsible engagement with online platforms, AI4Debunk2 strives to promote critical thinking and strengthen the fabric of a civil society.

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foresters

Foresteen

ForesTEEN aims to innovate the cultural offering for the new generations, through a process of participatory observation that experiments with different listening settings. The objective is to understand how the exchange with adolescents can stimulate "transgenerational dialogue", which can be a driver of innovation.

ForestTEEN is a European cooperation project for research and innovation of models audience development of the public of young adults understood as boys and girls between 15 and 25 years old, which develops from 15 November 2023 to 14 November 2027.

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Social informatics and population

design (2)
Social informatics and population

Interview with Patrizia Grifoni, demographics in the research group Social Informatics and Technology assessment . 11 July 2023 (World Population Day)

What is the situation in Italy with respect to the impact of ICT (communication and information technologies) on the population?

Opportunities and critical issues related to the use of ICT have certainly emerged during the pandemic period. According to Istat, in 2022 there was a significant percentage increase in the number of people (aged six and up) who surfed online, compared to the observations of previous years, so there was also a large growth in online sales. line. Obviously it is easy to trace this acceleration to the period of isolation. However, again according to Istat, in 2021 just under half of the population residing in Italy has at least basic digital skills, with a rather large gap compared to various European countries.
If it is true that the habitual use of technologies helps to gain trust, it is essential to work on awareness of how these technologies work and the risks they may entail.

In your research group, social informatics and technology assessment, you have conducted some studies on the digitization process forced by pandemic events. What emerged?

Analyzing the massive use that schools and universities have had to make of ICT, we have seen how, on the one hand, this has accelerated the diffusion in the use of digital technologies, but on the other it has highlighted the weaknesses. These concerned not only the lack of connection in many areas and the lack of devices available in the student and teacher community, accentuated by the different economic conditions. Above all, the need for innovative pedagogical models has emerged, capable of involving the class even from a distance. What subsequent experiences have shown us is that school teaching is difficult to replace by the online method, because human contact remains central, but the tools can be complementary and support learning and involvement.

A topic that is being talked about more and more frequently is the use of artificial intelligence (AI)…

Yes, the use of AI is daily and widespread, let's think of tools such as voice assistants, which help us to schedule and organize our activities, or of the uses of AI in medicine in the diagnosis phase but also in research on therapies , which can become increasingly personalized. This is a field in which research and pharmaceutical companies themselves are investing heavily and in which people have a certain amount of trust.
There are also uses related to safety, both in the environmental sector, where artificial intelligence can help predict and prevent catastrophic events, but also understood in terms of safety and social control.

For example?

Camera systems connected to AI tools allow pervasive control of public spaces, such as airports, allowing for the rapid identification of potentially risky behaviour. This also happens with some security systems in private environments, often used to monitor lonely elderly people, for example; these are systems that warn if they intercept a dangerous situation.

What are the implications of this type of use?

Of course, these jobs pose non-trivial ethical and privacy issues, about being constantly monitored and about the use of this information.

How do you evaluate the public debate on these issues?

In the scientific community, attention to these aspects is very strong, while it doesn't seem to me to be the same in people (general public). Let's take as an example tools the alarms that are installed in the house against theft. The more remotely controllable they are, the more possible an intrusion is. Having this awareness would be important, not to not use these tools, but to decide how best to do it. It is a bit like the discussion that is done with social networks. Those who use them are not always aware of being in a public "place" and this also emerges from the many cases of aggressive phenomena that take place online. Education on the use of these tools is really important.

Let's go back to what you said before, to the fact that Italy is one of the last countries for digital skills, which means knowledge of technologies but also knowledge of risks. Who do you think is responsible for providing this training?

School and university certainly play a very important role. And this not only if we think of the new generations. We have already observed in many experiences that sending a message to a child means educating the whole family. Also national programs promoting specific actions to be carried out also with the support of voluntary associations and other actors. they are important, as they have been, for example, in disseminating tools to combat bullying. All these technologies have enormous potential if used well. To use them well, it is necessary to work in a capillary manner to disseminate knowledge of both the technologies and their positive and negative impacts.

What phenomena allows us to understand the study of the behavior of the online population?

Almost all social behaviors are reflected online, many studies concern, for example, the phenomena of gender-based violence, cyberbullying, etc. The Big Companies understood this first and began to profile us to predict and perhaps even induce needs and, therefore, organize their business plan in the best possible way. Eventually it's something they figured out and started doing in politics as well. So let's go back to awareness...

What are the public/private balances in this sense?

An interesting aspect is the use that large private companies have made or can make of ideas and inputs that come from online communities, and which they can take, engineer and resell. A particular case is that of open software, which is made available in an open manner and whose codes are available and modifiable with the constraint that they must always be re-proposed to the public in an open manner. There's always the risk that this won't happen, even if the availability of open tools is now more and more widespread. There is also a theme of economic sustainability. While those working in the public sector may be able to embrace this model, it may be more difficult for small companies that are unlikely to use completely open strategies, unless they are fully integrated into a European design flow that requires this approach to be adopted.
On the other hand, this approach is really changing the world of research, favoring a much wider circulation of tools and ideas.

Curated by Monia Torre

Read also:
- Demographic ageing, migrations and family models – Interview with Angela Paparusso
- Population and economy – interview with Daniele Archibugi

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3 perspectives on World Population Day

On the occasion of World Population Day, we have gathered three different points of view on the study of population in our Institute.

With Angela Paparusso, demographer within the Population and Migration group, we talked about demographic ageing, family patterns and migrations.
With Patrizia Grifoni, engineer of the Social Informatics and Techology Assessment group, we focused on the different social implications in diffusion of communication and information technologies (ICT).
We asked Daniele Archibugi, economist in the Globalisation, research and innovation group, about the current link between demographic dynamics and economy.

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RARE-Bestpractices

RARE-Bestpractices

 

RARE-Bestpractices has developed a networking platform to support the collection of standardized and validated data and an efficient exchange of knowledge and reliable information on rare diseases (RMs).

The project was funded by the European Union: Grant Agreement - FP7-HEALTH-2012-Innovation-1-305690

The specificities of rare diseases, including limited patient numbers, the large number of rare diseases and their diversity with respect to origin and clinical manifestations, create challenges that make research advances and knowledge creation very difficult.

Starting from the request for greater knowledge and the need to share it, the four-year project funded by the European Union RARE-Bestpractices - Platform for sharing best practices for the management of rare diseases (www.rarebestpractices.eu) - Grant Agreement FP7-HEALTH -2012-Innovation-1-305690 - worked to create a sustainable networking platform to collect, evaluate and disseminate Best Practices in order to improve the management of patients with rare diseases and to promote a consistent level of care services in European countries .

A collaborative network was created with experts in the fields of guidelines, systematic literature reviews, technology assessment, rare disease epidemiology, public health from nine European countries. The main results were:

- A methodology for the production and evaluation of rare disease guidelines was agreed.

- A systematic collection of research guidelines and recommendations on rare diseases was carried out (these documents are collected in two specific databases available on the project website).

- An analysis of the criteria for defining the value of orphan drugs was carried out in 8 member states.

- A peer-reviewed and open access journal was created on the topic of rare diseases (http://rarejournal.org/rarejournal);

- Two editions of the international course “Health care guidelines on rare diseases. Quality assessment ".

- Training tools have been produced to assist guideline developers and evaluators.

- A collaboration has been activated with the International Rare Diseases Research Consortium (IRDiRC).

- Scientific coordination and networking was guaranteed.

The role of the CNR (present with IRPPS and the Institute of Clinical Physiology) is reported:
- Project Management;
- Healthcare Process Modeling - graphic representation of care processes using standard languages;

- Policy Analysis - analysis of policies for determining the value of health technologies, especially in conditions of scarce evidence.

CNR has prepared the following deliverable: Method of representation of BP guideline through Standardized notations / languages ​​for graphical representation of healthcare processes

(http://www.cnr.it/peoplepublic/peoplepublic/index/downloadprodotto/i/119746)

CNR participated in the following publications:

Mincarone P, Leo CG, Sabina S, Sarriá-Santamera A, Taruscio D, Serrano-Aguilar P, Kanavos PG. Reimbursed Price of Orphan Drugs: Current Strategies and Potential Improvements. Public Health Genomics, 2017. DOI: 10.1159 / 000464100. https://www.karger.com/Article/FullText/464100

Mincarone P, Leo CG, Sabina S, Tordrup D, Taruscio D, Kanavos P. Reimbursed Price of Orphan Drugs: A Value Based Framework. Value Health. 2015; 18 (7): A678.

Sejersen T, Del Giovane C, Filippini G, Leo CG, Meerpohl JJ, Mincarone P, et al. Methodology for production of best practice guidelines for rare diseases. RARE DISEASES AND ORPHAN DRUGS. 2014; 1 (1); 10-19. http://rarejournal.org/rarejournal/article/view/35

Pai M, Iorio A, Meerpohl J, et al. Developing methodology for the creation of clinical practice guidelines for rare diseases: A report from RARE-Bestpractices. Rare Dis. 2015; 3 (1): e1058463. doi: 10.1080 / 21675511.2015.1058463. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4590012/

Taruscio D, Morciano C, Laricchiuta P, et al. RARE-Bestpractices: a platform for sharing best practices for the management of rare diseases. Orphanet J Rare Dis. 2014; 9 (Suppl 1): O14. doi: 10.1186 / 1750-1172-9-S1-O14. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4249596/

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Legal blindness costs

Legal blindness costs

 

The research work, carried out in collaboration with the Economic Evaluation and HTA center of the CEIS Faculty of Economics of the Tor Vergata University of Rome, envisages the development of a probabilistic model of Cost of Illness of maculopathies in Italy. The model will be able to summarize the epidemiological characteristics of the disease and the stratification of patients according to the guidelines recognized by the reference medical associations. These data will be associated with cost estimates relating to direct health costs (drugs, hospitalizations, visits for therapy and / or diagnosis, etc.) and indirect costs (loss of productivity due to absenteeism and presentism, job loss, disability pensions and / or disability, etc.) caused directly or indirectly by the disease. The results of the elaborations will allow to obtain realistic estimates of the economic and epidemiological weight of maculopathies in Italy and will be able to provide an important cognitive contribution for decision makers. The results of the work will be implemented within the blindness observatory designed by the EEHTA center of the CEIS Faculty of Economics of the University of Rome Tor Vergata (director of the center Prof. Francesco Saverio Mennini).

It is estimated that in Italy about 4,8 million patients are affected by vascular diseases of the retina. Therapy with Vascular Endothelial Growt Factor (VEGF) inhibitors represented an important innovation in the health sector, making it possible to treat ophthalmic diseases for which there were few therapeutic possibilities. Since 2008, the year of their introduction, anti-VEGF drugs have allowed not only the improvement of the health of treated patients but also potential reductions in social spending. Despite the important epidemiological weight and the significant expenditure incurred for the management and treatment of these diseases, there are few economic studies available in the literature.

Andrea Marcellusi, Fabio Palazzo, collaboration with EEHTA-CEIS. Faculty of Economics, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”.

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IC-Health-Improving digital health literacy in Europe

IC-Health-Improving digital health literacy in Europe

Workshops and participatory approaches for knowledge sharing in a learning process. Design of online platforms

Citizens' digital health literacy is an essential element for successful eHealth deployment. However, citizens often do not have the necessary skills to find, understand and appraise online health information and apply their knowledge to make health decisions. Digitally health literate citizens are empowered to play a more active role in their health self-management, resulting in improved prevention, adherence to a healthier lifestyle and better health outcomes.
IC-Health will provide support for the improvement of digital health literacy in Europe. In particular, the project will design 35 open access online courses (MOOCs), in seven different national languages, for different population cohorts including children, adolescents, pregnant and lactating women, elderly and people affected or susceptible to be affected by type 1 and type 2diabetes.
The identified population cohorts, along with health professionals, academics and other practitioners, will be organized in Communities of Practice and involved directly in the co-creation of the MOOCs content and structure. Once the courses are be designed, they will be tested by the members of the CoPs and by other users.

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Sensitivity analysis COI Maculopathies

Sensitivity analysis COI Maculopathies

The research work, carried out in collaboration with the Economic Evaluation and HTA center of the CEIS Faculty of Economics of the Tor Vergata University of Rome, envisages the development of a probabilistic sensitivity analysis linked to the Cost of Illness estimates of maculopathies in Italy. Within the economic evaluations, one of the most critical aspects is represented by the uncertainty of the parameters used in the model which can compromise the reliability of the estimates obtained. To this end, different methodologies have been developed in the literature capable of estimating the uncertainty of economic models (One / multi-way deterministic sensitivity analysis, bootstrap simulation, Probabilistic sensitivity analysis, etc.). However, in the context of economic evaluations and Cost of Illness models, in particular, the probabilistic sensitivity analysis with montecarlo simulations represents one of the most recommended methods and the estimation of 95% confidence intervals one of the most understandable indicators for communication. the uncertainty of the economic results to be presented to the stakeholders of the Health System

The objective of the analysis is to estimate the uncertainty of the parameters used in a previously developed Cost of Illness model of maculopathies in Italy. In particular, the objective of the project is to develop an excel based model capable of estimating the intervals at 95% of the main results obtained from the CoI model through montecarlo simulations by associating specific probability distributions to each parameter used within the model.

Andrea Marcellusi, Fabio Palazzo, collaboration with EEHTA-CEIS. Faculty of Economics, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”.

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Sic-scicafè2.0

Sic-scicafè2.0

The SciCafe2.0 project is a project funded under the FP7 program. The project aimed at: • identifying participatory methodologies for an inclusive, co-creative society, for the construction of an e-democracy capable of responding to the challenges of society. • the construction of a virtual platform and observatory for Crowd Sourcing, capable of assisting participatory methodologies and decision support; • the execution of methodologically guided experiments to evaluate the various approaches to involving citizens and communities appropriately selected in the process of democratic consultation and sharing of the resulting ideas, collected and structured in a process of collective intelligence. In particular, the social and computational informatics unit provided the Scicafè Tool platform and its participatory functions, configured on the basis of the PLAKSS platform.

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Pneumological Services Network: Integration, Research & Open-innovation (ReSPIRO)

Pneumological Services Network: Integration, Research & Open-innovation (ReSPIRO)

ReSPIRO represents a strategic planning initiative within INNOVAAL, the Public-Private Aggregation for the research, development, experimentation and validation of innovative technologies and services for "Active and Assisted Living" (admitted for funding in response to the MIUR call n.713 / RIC of 29.10.2010) which aims to build a network of skills in the field of design and supply of technological products and services dedicated to the elderly and people with different forms of frailty and disability. ReSPIRO was born from a shared vision aimed at aggregating skills and resources to create an integrated technological supply chain capable of responding, in the broader horizon referable to the field Health, well-being and socio-cultural dynamics, to the needs of social inclusion, safety, assistance and health expressed by subjects in conditions, overt or at risk, of chronicity (respiratory, cardiological, oncological, neurodegenerative diseases, etc.). The Cluster intends to focus on the development of technologies and systems in the field ofActive Assisted Living to support processes of prevention (primary and secondary) and self-management of health, diagnosis, treatment and follow-up in order to favor a complete and personalized management of chronic disease in the home environment (both in the perspective ofhomecare than in that ofhospital at home). ReSPIRO, within the scope of this proposal, aims to ensure continuity of care for the respiratory-chronic patient in respiratory home care (ADR) and integrated (ADI) by preventing and / or promptly managing exacerbations (associated with re-hospitalizations).

The project was funded by the Puglia Region (Notice "AID TO SUPPORT REGIONAL TECHNOLOGICAL CLUSTERS FOR INNOVATION").

Industrial research: development of devices for home monitoring of the health conditions of patients with chronic respiratory failure. IRPPS role: Analysis of health processes.

The constant increase in chronic conditions and the weight of the resulting effects lead to the need to develop a new socio-health model capable of managing the slow onset, the progressive worsening and the considerable complexity of treatment. The integration between hospital and community care is a model to follow. Among the chronic-degenerative pathologies, particular importance is covered by respiratory insufficiency. At present, despite having therapeutic resources (long-term oxygen therapy, home ventilatory therapy), there is no integrated intervention program on the territory aimed at ensuring correct management of the various levels of severity of the disease. Of fundamental importance in this integrated vision is the monitoring of patients in their own home through devices and sensors, which, if implemented in a widespread manner, may be able to report in real time to the competent ASLs the occurrence of actual states of flare-up of the disease, which require the intervention of health personnel. The use of sensors and devices, analyzing the patient's breath (Breath Analysis), would allow the double advantage of controlling in a preventive and non-invasive way respiratory function, thus managing and / or delaying the evolution of chronic respiratory failure. ReSPIRO, by combining the identification of pervasive technologies, also by resorting to micro and nano electronics, and the creation of devices, intends to pursue two strategic objectives: to manage the disease through the integration of treatment paths and to control the parameters related to the state of health of the pneumological patient at home, also through the development and adoption of specific breath "evaluation" sensors, integration with devices for self- and remote monitoring of fundamental parameters and with systems for monitoring compliance to therapy.

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