Projects

HTTK toob kokku juhtivad psüühika, keha, sotsiaalse konteksti ja ruumilise konteksti uurijad, et luua distsipliinide ülene arusaam komplekssüsteemidest, mis mõjutavad heaolu: elu kvaliteeti erinevates valdkondades objektiivses ja eriti subjektiivses mõttes. Me käsitleme 4 uurimisvaldkonda. 1) KORRELAADID: Millised bio-psühholoogilised ja sotsiaal-ruumilised omadused on seotud heaolu püsivamate komponentidega nagu eluga rahulolu? 2) MEHHANISMID: Kuidas rulluvad inimestes lahti heaolu dünaamilised komponendid, näiteks emotsioonid? 3) ENESEHOOL: Kuidas inimesed ise oma heaolu enesehoole ökosüsteemides mõistavad ja juhivad? 4) SEKKUMISED: Kuidas heaolu isikustatud ja kohandatud sekkumistega edendada? HTTK rahastab interdistsiplinaarseid ametikohti; registriandmetega lõimitud longituud-uuring; doktorikooli; tippsündmusi; ja rändluse ja koostöö toetusmeedet. HTTK tõstab osalevate rühmade, asutuste ja Eesti heaoluteaduste tulemuslikkust ja mõjukust.

The overall goal of the project is to increase the number of healthy life years of the population. Currently, Estonia has recorded one of the lowest number of healthy life years at birth in the EU. To achieve this goal, three closely related areas of digital health are researched, developed and piloted. We use the standardized data exchange environment and digital data of the Estonian health information system (EHIS) to develop applications that increase the use of data collected by the person for health promotion, prevention and control of chronic conditions. Second, we focus on sensors and digital applications supported by artificial intelligence (AI) to allow a person to collect both biosignals and textual data in machine-readable form. With this, we speed up the detection of health risks and reduce the healthcare workload. Thirdly, we develop various AI methods by combining the data in EHIS and the Health Insurance Fund's database, as well as the data collected by the person.

Around 13% of the adult population suffers some form of kidney damage, and the death rate of complications related to chronic kidney disease (CKD) is very high. The primary cause of death in CKD patients is cardiovascular disease. Vascular calcification (VC), one of the cardiovascular complications, is prevailing in CKD. One of the causes of VC in CKD is the disbalance between VC inhibitors and inducers due to failed kidney function. During the dialysis therapy for end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients, inducers and also inhibitors are removed from the patients’ blood. This project (VasCalDi) aims to develop unique optical methods to estimate VC and monitor VC inhibitors removal during dialysis in patients with ESRD. The project's goal is to make the work of hospitals and physicians more efficient and improve the life quality and survival of ESRD patients by monitoring disturbances in VC inhibitor balance and vasculature allowing timely interventions.

"The pilot project aims to bridge the gap between urban planners and urban residents developing a well-being score. This is an innovative method and tool integrating quantitative physiological and subjective psychological indicators for assessing environments that are not only safe and convenient, but also interesting or pleasant or vice versa to define environments that are unsafe, stressful, overstimulating, or unattractive. The result is a visualization of well-being score (WBS) and related parameters as map layers including guidelines for interpretation and use in city planning workflow. The WBS can also be used as an input for solving climate challenges in the city planning. Increased well-being in the city, e.g. better human-environment relations, in turn, creates an overall spill-over effect contributing to secure and mentally, physically, socially, economically healthier city. Narva is the project pilot partner city where the WBS will serve as an additional input for making decisions about the improvements in their living districts to find new options for keeping and attracting citizens and investments. The pilot project team will involve also other cities as the goal is to develop and validate a new service for the FinEst Centre for Smart Cities relevant for many cities in Europe."

Goal of the CoE in ICT, EXCITE, is to bring together the Estonian research competences in the areas of modern robotics, Internet of things, and cyberphysical systems; securiy and dependability; software engineering and foundations of computing; and biomedical application areas. The alignment of research areas strengthens the mutual collaboration and cross the field joint activities, allows to create the capacity and critical mass of next generation ICT researchers. Linking the hardware (robotics, systems design, internet of things, biomedical devices), software and services, developing the security and dependability, working with massive data, and applying these competences to biomedical applications among others, will create a significant impact on society and economy.

"EXCITE brings together the topranked ICT research groups Estonia to work jointly on a focussed, yet broad and extendable, research programme. It will capitalize on the existing expertise to create synergies on the rich but fragmented landscape of the Estonian ICT research. The consortium will advance foundational theories of model verification and data analysis. On this groundwork, it will develop methods and tools for sound practices of designing and analyzing reliable and secure ICT systems processing large data volumes, as demanded by applications to domains of high socioeconomic relevance (cyberphysical and robotic systems, ehealth and biomedical systems). We will start with 10 cooperation themes with clearly defined objectives, methodology and expected results. These themes will be refined and redefined after 3 years. EXCITE will support research sustainability and provide a development opportunity for young researchers by financing 20-30 PhD students and postdocs.

In the case of impaired cerebrospinal fluid absorption, or hydrocephalus, the pressure in the cerebral cortex increases, which also narrows the blood vessels that supply the brain, and thus the dynamics of blood flow pulsations in these blood vessels change. The dynamics of blood pulsations change in a similar way in the case of narrowing of the blood vessels, which is caused, for example, by calcification of the arteries of the leg. Both situations would require a simple, repeatable, and inexpensive diagnostic method for early detection and monitoring of changes. Therefore, the aim of the postdoctoral project and a study carried out at the City University of London was to investigate the effect of constriction on the pulsating optical signal recorded from an artery and to develop an optical method to detect the constriction. An arterial system was developed consisting of a pump and tubing that created different levels of fluid flow obstruction. Suitable optical sensors were built to record the optical signal from the tubes and later from the arteries. In the built arterial system, an optical signal related to the change in blood volume and flow was recorded before and after the induced constriction in the tube. Characteristic changes were detected in the signals, which are directly related to narrowing of the arteries mimicking tubes. As follows, the study was carried out in a small group of subjects, in which the constriction in the arm arteries was artificially induced at different levels. The changes detected from the optical pulsating signal recorded from the artery of the arm were consistent with the changes in the optical signal found in the constructed model. These results provide some confidence that this method and optical technology can be used to detect narrowing of the arteries. However, further studies are needed, for example in patients with calcified leg arteries, and thus to monitor and, if necessary, to improve this methodology.