The results of the successfully completed project “VITA – Virtual Telemedical Assistance” were presented yesterday as part of the EU Projects Open Day 2024.

The presentation took place at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Naval Architecture (FESB) of the University of Split whose staff carried out the project under the leadership of Prof. Ph.D. Mladen Russo.

VITA is a research project within which a prototype of advanced telemedicine was developed based on virtual and augmented reality, computer vision, and IoT medical devices.

This platform relies on the “Internet of Things” paradigm. It enables remote consultation, diagnosis, and treatment of patients using innovative technologies that significantly improve the quality and availability of healthcare care.

In today’s world, telemedicine is becoming a key part of modern healthcare systems, enabling access to medical services regardless of physical distance.

Modern information and communication solutions have become necessary to improve diagnostics and therapy. VITA goes beyond classic telemedicine systems, which mainly rely on audio-visual communication, integrating advanced technologies such as virtual and augmented reality, computer vision, and IoT devices.

This enables a complete experience of virtual collaboration between patients and health workers and lays the foundations for further improvement of health care.

The modular architecture of the VITA platform enables flexible development and integration of different components, including the central medical system, extended systems reality, and virtual reality systems. This modular approach ensures independent testing and adjusting each part of the system, making it easier to adapt to the changing requirements and technological advances.

The goal of the platform is to enable advanced collaboration between medical professionals at a distance.

By integrating virtual and augmented reality, users can communicate and share information in real time, creating an immersive experience that enables visualization of complex medical data, such as 3D organ and medical model recordings.

This technology improves diagnostics and communication with patients and enables more effective collaboration between healthcare professionals. VITA platform represents the foundation for the future of telemedicine, providing advanced capabilities interactions, visualizations, and collaborations that are not available in traditional systems.

This significantly improves the quality of healthcare, especially in remote areas.

“It is clear that modern information and communication solutions are necessary for improving diagnostics and therapy. But VITA goes one step further!

The prototype of the telemedicine platform represents an excellent basis for the development of a system that would enable not only remote consultations and diagnostics but also more efficient provision of medical services at a distance.

Unlike classic telemedicine systems, which mainly offer only audio-visual communication between users, VITA integrates advanced technologies such as virtual and augmented reality, computer vision, and IoT devices.

This enables a comprehensive experience of virtual collaboration between patients and healthcare professionals, which lays the foundation for the future improvement of healthcare,” the FESB researchers pointed out.