EMBalance

WP Leader: UCL

WP1 runs through the entire project life cycle and includes project management, coordination, exploitation and dissemination activities, and definition and establishment of the Intellectual Property Rights.

The overall objectives of WP1 are:

• to ensure the efficient financial, administrative and technical management of the project in order that project objectives are addressed within the available time and effort resources.
• to proactively disseminate the project results according to the EMBalance Consortium dissemination strategy.
• to create community awareness of the project developments worldwide and within different categories of Stakeholders as well as National and European policy makers.
• to ensure that the best possible foundations are established for appropriate non-commercial exploitation of the project results, after the project has finished.
• to foster a high business take-up of the knowledge that will be produced and the final EMBalance product , by a implementing as wide diffusion of the results as possible.

WP Leader: CITY

WP2 will define the requirements of the Clinical users of the EMBalance Diagnostic Support System (DSS), the detailed functional and non-functional specifications of the different components of the system and will include activities that underpin design of the Human Computer Interaction and Interface throughout the project. It includes preliminary activities that are crucial to the proper implementation of the system and the clinical proof of concept.

The objectives are to:

• Analyse the state of the art technologies that are relevant for the EMBalance platform and define innovations of the project.
• Identify the different roles of the EMBalance stakeholders, the specialties of the involved experts, and characterize the user needs.
• Identify and address technological issues
• Obtain an initial design of the system and identify the functional and non-functional specifications for each component of the EMBalance platform, in order to deliver a sophisticated architecture, that will help further project implementation.

WP Leader: UA

WP3 includes the first cycle of the EMBalance clinical validation, construction and personalization of the human balance model, and comprehensive literature reviews that aim to identify current evidence-based diagnostic and management guidelines for balance disorders.

The objectives of this WP are to:

• Collect and collate retrospective clinical anonymised data and balance related models, already possessed by the EMBalance partners, that will be utilized for the development and personalization of the human balance model and for the development and training of the Decision Support System (DSS).
• Form the EMBalance Data and Models Repository, that will be accessible to the consortium partners and to the human balance-related healthcare community.
• Identify and report the Gold Standard current clinical practice for Balance Disorders Diagnosis and Management.
• Clinically validate the DSS based on retrospective anonymised clinical data.
• Utilize existing aerospace data in order to validate the DSS in hostile environments.

WP Leader TUD

This work-package includes modelling integration and extension activities for the development, technical validation and personalization of the multi-scale patient-specific EMBalance Hypermodel. This will be developed based on existing generic balance models and other existing data. A 3D visualization tool will be developed to assist clinicians. The model will be personalized, and validated in healthy controls and with the aid of the PostuRob balance robot.

The objectives are to:

• Develop a general dynamic EMBalance Hypermodel based on the state of the art currently existing sensory models.
• Identify the relative importance of different balance model parameters for balance control in order to personalize the EMBalance model for individual patients.
• Develop a detailed model with 3D visualization tool of the semi-circular canals in the inner ear.
• Develop a personalized multi-scale EMBalance balance model, to predict balance in an individual subject based on clinical test results.
• Validate the model quality of the model in healthy controls and the PostuRob balance robot.

WP Leader ICCS

This WP undertakes the development of the Decision Support System (DSS) for the early diagnosis and management of balance disorders and treatment planning. The DSS will be deployed to the web, utilizing web-services and developed as HL7 v2 compatible to increase its accessibility and adaptability.

The objectives are to deliver:

• Pre-processing data analysis tools such as feature input vector formation, missing values replacement, sensitivity analysis and feature selection.
• An efficient DSS for accurate decisions on: (i) Examinations Recommendation, (ii Early Diagnosis of Balance Disorders), (iii) Prediction of Balance Disorders Behaviour and (iv) Treatment Planning.
• User-friendly and clinician acceptable feedback messages.
• Web-service Interfaces and Web based Access.
• A HL7 v2 compatible Electronic Health Record data collection (EHR-ready) system, in order to enhance the interoperability of the EMBalance system, safeguard patient data confidentiality and facilitate its connection to Hospital and Healthcare system as per universally accepted standards.

WP Leader BioIRC

This WP will develop the final web-based EMBalance platform by integrating the developed tools. It contains technical testing and refinement activities in order to optimise performance.

The objectives are to:

• Handle software components integration issues
• Refine the architecture of the system and address human computer interaction issues, hazards and malfunctions.
• Develop a user-friendly interface and user interaction services.
• Develop an avatar to help General Physicians and non-experts Clinicians to select the necessary examinations and tests towards efficient diagnosis and management.
• Integrate the various developed tools and subsystems into a flexible, web and service-based software framework that will assist clinicians to diagnose and manage balance disorders.
• Technically test and evaluate the integrated EMBalance Platform according to predefined testing criteria, ensuring the quality of the produced software system.
• Debug and refine the software components.
• Implement the EMBalance Bridge to the Horizon 2020.
• Identify any possible Technical Risks and Hazards.

WP Leader UCL

WP7 includes the 2nd cycle of clinical validation of the EMBalanceDiagnostic Support System ( DSS). . Small-scale trials for validation on diagnosis and prediction, treatment planning and follow-up will be prospectively conducted. The DSS will be utilized by primary and/or second care physicians, on consecutive patients who will be subsequently evaluated at state of the art clinical facilitiesThe outcome measures of the clinical trials will include:

• The percentage of cases with correct diagnosis, and percentage of cases with correctly identified treatment (i.e. consistent with that made by Specialist) made by the Physicians who were using the DSS vs. the Physicians who were not using the DSS
• Debriefing data regarding DSS ease of use and Calculation of cost benefits

The objective of WP7 is:

• to assess the ability of the DSS to correctly guide diagnosis

• to assess the DSS efficacy in providing a comprehensive and personalised management plan for individual patients

WP Leader UoA

WP8 contains the activities undertaken at the third cycle of EMBalance clinical validation including usability testing of the platform, efficiency testing, user acceptance and platform refinement. This WP aims to evaluate the EMBalance unified platform, and its individual tools and services.

The main objectives of WP8 are to:

• Compare and evaluate clinically used and advanced balance measures in healthy controls
• Assess the user-friendliness and ergonomy of the developed interfaces and three dimensions (3D) visualization tool.
• Assess the effectiveness of the feedback messages that are being generated by the Decision Support System (DSS) and presented to the physicians (i.e. diagnosis, monitoring and prevention, treatment planning, etc).
• Evaluate the accuracy of the DSS.
• Evaluate the speed and response time of the DSS.
• Deliver a report of the overall clinical proof of concept and the overall evaluation of the unified EMBalance platform.