E-Health solutions for Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Description

E-health finds its origin at the meeting point between technological (especially ICT) development and growing demand for health services, offering innovative but also ethically acceptable and cost-effective solutions. Increasing insight into cognitive and neuropsychological networks, sophisticated systems for data collection and measurement of mental processes, engaging environments and simulations providing constantly new stimuli and consolidating new and better ways of functioning are some of the potentials of e-health systems. Outside the individual, expanding networks connecting patients and clinicians, clinicians and school professionals, school professionals and patients’ families, allowing information exchange, support and guidance, monitoring and training create virtual pathways for health programs to be realized and to meet real social needs.

Our research on e-health tools extends from new diagnostic systems to empowerment and rehabilitation, to screening and preventions programs, to e-learning and networking. Assessment and intervention in learning, language and communication disorders, management of complex situations related to bilingualism, and empowerment of cognitive development for preschool children are some of the targets of our present and future projects.

Selected publications

• Lorusso, M.L., Facoetti, A., Paganoni, P., Pezzani, M. and Molteni, M. (2006) Effects of visual Hemisphere-specific  Stimulation versus Reading-focused Training in dyslexic children. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 16, 194-212.
• Lorusso, M.L., Facoetti, A., Cattaneo, C., Pesenti, S., Galli, R., Molteni, M. and Geiger, G. (2006). Training visual-spatial attention in developmental dyslexia. In C.B. Hayes (ed.), Dyslexia in Children: New Research. New York: Nova Science Publisher.
• Milani, A., Lorusso, M.L., e Molteni, M. (2010) The effects of audiobooks on the psychosocial adjustment of pre-adolescents and adolescents with dyslexia. Dyslexia, 16, 87-97.
• Lorusso, M.L., Facoetti, A., & Bakker, D. J. (2011). Neuropsychological treatment of Dyslexia: does type of treatment matter? Journal of Learning Disabilities, 44, 136-149.
• Biffi, E., Taddeo P., Lorusso M.L., Reni G., (2014). NFC-based application with educational purposes. ACM Digital Library, 370-372. DOI 10.4108/ICST.pervasivehealth.2014.255350.
• Lorusso, M.L., Cantiani, C., Molteni, M. (2014). Age, dyslexia subtype and comorbidity modulate rapid auditory processing in developmental dyslexia. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8, 313. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00313
• Bonacina, S., Cancer, A., Lanzi, P. L., Lorusso, M. L., & Antonietti, A. (2015). Improving reading skills in students with dyslexia: the efficacy of a sublexical training with rhythmic background. Frontiers in Psychology, 6.
• Lorusso, M.L., Biffi, E., Molteni, M. and Reni, G.L. (2017): Exploring the learnability and usability of a near field communication-based application for semantic enrichment in children with language disorders, Assistive Technology, DOI: 10.1080/10400435.2016.1253046.
• Lorusso, M.L., Giorgetti, M., Travellini, S., Greci, L., Zangiacomi, A., Mondellini, M., Sacco, M. and Reni, G. (2017) Giok: an alien stimulates pragmatic and social skills in pre-school children. In H.M. Fardoun, V. M. Penichet, M. Alghazzawi, P. Gamito, Proceedings of the 4th Workshop on ICTs for improving Patients Rehabilitation Research Techniques (pp. 89-92). ACM Association for Computing Machinery Digital Library, New York. ACM ISBN: 978-1-4503-4765-5. DOI: 10.1145/3051488.3051500
• Piazza, C., Cesareo, A.,  Caccia, M., Reni, G.L., Lorusso, M.L. (2017) A tapping device for recording and quantitative characterization of rhythmic/auditory sequences. Proceedings of the Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBS. Published on 13 Sep 2017, doi: 10.1109/EMBC.2017.8037058

Partnerships

• Catholic University, Milan
• Bicocca University, Milan
• IRCCS Carlo Besta, Milan
• Politecnico, Milan
• Regional Office for Education (Ufficio Scolastico Regionale), Milan
• Seleggo Onlus
• ITIA CNR, MilanoCNR-ISASI – Institute for Applied Science and Intelligent Systems “Eduardo Caianiello” (CNR-ISASI) of the National Research Council (CNR), within the branch of Intelligent Systems for Health.