The d-LIVER project announces a Showcase Workshop to introduce new technological solutions to improve clinical care and patient quality of life in advanced liver disease. d-LIVER has developed a home monitoring system for remote patient management and a bio-artificial liver support device. The home monitoring system will support patients with advanced liver disease using regular patient-led measurements of physiological parameters (including heart rate and blood pressure) and six blood biochemistry tests. An ICT-enabled system allows semi-automated optimisation of therapy with support from specialist clinicians, where required. It is envisaged that this system will allow the earlier detection of decompensation leading to improved clinical outcomes, improved patient quality of life and reduced costs of management.
The bio-artificial liver technology includes identification of a reliable and cost effective source of functional hepatocytes, derived from readily expandable progenitors, to carry out detoxification and other hepatic functions in an acute setting. A three-dimensional bioreactor will provide an environment in which these cells can be supported and monitored during the perfusion of serum from patients undergoing support.
The Workshop is designed to showcase the developed technologies and to learn how these new technologies might fit in to current and future clinical practice. It addresses liver specialists at large liver centres but also other interested healthcare specialists including general practitioners (GPs), technology integrators and developers, health service and health insurance representatives, and patient representatives.
The Workshop is co-organised with the NanoBio4Trans project and will take place on May 27th 2015 at the Humanitas Research Hospital Congress Centre in Milan, Italy. Participation is free of charge but registration is required at www.d-liver.eu/showcase2015/.
About d-LIVER
The d-LIVER project addresses the need for an ICT enabled bio-artificial liver support system (BAL) to facilitate detoxification as remote transient therapy at the point of need, offering continuous care from hospital to home settings. The overall goal of the project is to provide safe and cost-effective systems for continuous, context-aware, multi-parametric monitoring of both patient and BAL system parameters in order to: enhance the quality of medical treatment and management; improve the quality of life for patients; reduce the incidence and duration of hospitalization and consequently reduce the health economic burden of chronic liver disease. d-LIVER will facilitate improved treatment whilst enabling patients to spend more time at home under constant, albeit remote, medical supervision. The d-LIVER project is coordinated by Newcastle University (Prof. Calum McNeil) and funded by the European Union 7th Framework Programme.
About NanoBio4Trans
The aim of the NanoBio4Trans project is to develop, optimize and validate a highly vascularised in vivo-like extracorporeal bio-artificial liver, which is ready to be perfused with human blood plasma, and can be exploited in modern medical technology. The aim of the first version of the artificial liver is to support patients with weak liver function with an external bio-artificial liver; this should be ready in 2020. The NanoBio4Trans project is funded by the European Union 7th Framework Programme.