Launched in 2018, a USI project in collaboration with Cardiocentro, Ticino Cuore and Federazione Cantonale Ticinese Servizi Ambulanze, is receiving a further four-year grant from the Swiss National Research Fund.

Developing predictive models that allow maximum reduction of intervention times in the event of a cardiovascular emergency: this is the aim of a project on which the Data Science Lab at the Università della Svizzera italiana (Prof. Antonietta Mira) has been working for a few years now. This project is in collaboration with the Cardiocentro Ticino Institute (Prof. Angelo Auricchio), the Fondazione Ticino Cuore, and the Federazione Cantonale Ticinese Servizi Ambulanze. Statistical models and algorithms integrate data from different sources to build a cardiovascular risk map and enable a reinforcement of the surveillance, particularly with regard to the distribution of defibrillators in the area.

“We will produce cardiovascular risk maps of the territory of Ticino, updated weekly, which will be available to the emergency services. Once fully developed, the project will have far-reaching social and health benefits and can be applied to other situations,” says Prof. Mira. This is in fact a pilot project starting in Ticino but which aims to involve gradually other Swiss Cantons and other territorial areas on a European scale.

Prof. Auricchio underlines the importance of the new funding from the SNSF: “Thanks to this important support for research, which also involves brilliant Master and PhD students at USI, for the next four years we will continue along this interdisciplinary line of research. This line of research has already led to important publications in international journals and communications at conferences focusing on the definition of new methodologies to improve the strategic positioning of automatic defibrillators in the Ticino area”.