Blood microvessels are responsible for transporting oxygen throughout the body and are very useful for analyzing how a patient with covid-19 is doing. This has been demonstrated by the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) in the Vascovid project, which uses infrared rays to analyze biomarkers such as blood flow or the oxygenation of blood microvessels, which are very representative of the state of coronavirus patients. These indicators allow classifying them according to their severity, applying specific treatments in each case; monitoring them in real time and in a non-invasive way, and evaluating when they no longer need the help of artificial respiration.
The project was able to be developed thanks to the relationships that ICFO has been building for a long time with doctors from all over the world and, especially, from the Barcelona area, for the development of photonic technologies with clinical use. Photonics, the science that studies light, has multiple applications in very diverse fields and health is one of them, thanks to its versatility, precision and non-invasive nature. Increasingly, photonics is playing a more important role in medical techniques and practices and is already considered a key technology in healthcare in Europe. For example, it can be used for the diagnosis, control and prognosis of diseases with the use of lasers or infrared lights.
It is for all this that the research center led by Lluís Torner has taken another step to promote research and development (R&D) on the health application of photonics, and has promoted the creation of the Barcelona Medical Photonics Network hand in hand with eight health institutions and their respective research institutes, with the aim of joining forces to position photonic technologies at the forefront of hospital activity and generate more success stories like that of Vascovid.
This new alliance must serve to consolidate and expand the reach and impact of the work that ICFO and different hospitals and professionals have been developing over the last decade. According to Ariadna Martínez, coordinator of ICFO's Light for Health Program, the projects that have been promoted so far have been based on relationships that have emerged with specific professionals and have focused on concrete issues. However, Martínez emphasizes that a framework agreement has now been established that will allow these contacts to be standardized and made more easily, in addition to fostering joint participation in international initiatives and projects.
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Martínez adds that the new network will also streamline procedures to bring solutions developed in laboratories to hospitals and provide access to a larger and more varied universe of patients for testing and studies. Another expected impact is on the development of innovative medical tools, which can be applied to patients of all ages and in diverse specialties, such as pediatrics, oncology, aging, and neurology.
Initially, the Barcelona Medical Photonics Network is composed of the Fundació Institut de Recerca de l'Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, the Institut d'Investigació Biomèdica Sant Pau, the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, the Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, the Hospital Universitari Vall d'Hebron, the Vall d'Hebron Institut de Recerca (VHIR), the Institut d'Investigació Oncològica de Vall d'Hebron (VHIO), the Institut d'Investigació i Innovació Parc Taulí, the Institut d'Investigació en Ciències de la Salut Germans Trias i Pujol, the Parc Sanitari Pere Virgili, and the Fundació Institut Hospital del Mar d'Investigacions Mèdiques (IMIM).
Barcelona, capital of medical photonics once a year
The understanding promoted by ICFO contemplates the organization once a year of an event in Barcelona that brings together local and international experts to discuss the application of photonics in medicine. As with the promotion of the Barcelona Medical Photonics Network, this meeting will serve to generate a forum in which this issue is the protagonist, give visibility to the talent in the city and foster new alliances.
Regarding this year's call, Martínez details that it will focus on the solutions that photonics can provide to neurology and the care of neurocritical patients. From ICFO, they are working with the idea of holding it between June and July, but they are open to postponing it so that it can be done in person.