CRESLA Torino and Turin MS Centre
The Turin ALS Centre (CRESLA Torino) is part of the “Rita Levi Montalcini” Department of Neuroscience of the University of Turin (UNITO). UNITO is one of the largest Italian universities, with about 80.000 students, 3.900 employees, 1.800 post-graduate and post-doctoral research fellows.
The Turin ALS Centre is also part of the Medical Department of Neuroscience and Mental Health of the Città della Salute e della Scienza di Torino (City of Health and Science of Turin), Neurology 1 Unit. The Turin ALS centre represents the Regional ALS Reference Centre for Piemonte Region and currently has more than 300 ALS patients followed up. The centre is involved in clinical research (clinical trials, genetics, deep phenotyping) and basic research in collaboration with several laboratories in Italy and Europe.
??The Turin MS Centre is also part of the Medical Department of Neuroscience and Mental Health of the Città della Salute e della Scienza di Torino (City of Health and Science of Turin), Neurology 1 Unit. The Turin MS Centre has currently more than 1400 MS patients followed up, performing more than 5000 visits per year. Almost 350 patients per year perform therapeutic infusion in the MS Centre Day Hospital.
Which is the target number of patients to be recruited (specify MS/ALS)? Outline of inclusion criteria. How many professionals will be included in piloting?
CRESLA Torino will enrol forty ALS patients and the Turin MS Centre will enrol sixty MS patients that can give a written informed consent. The patients will be enrolled in the study and followed by a multidisciplinary team composed of six senior neurologists, three junior neurologists and PhD students, four resident neurologists, one study nurse.
Which will be the clinical protocol used for the cohort of recruited patients, indication of sensors that will be used and of the data (Demographic, clinical, lifestyle, environmental, genetic, other…) that will be gathered?
All patients attending our centre that meet the enrolment criteria will be asked to participate in the study. A smartwatch and a portable environmental sensor will be provided so that physiological parameters, daily activities, and air quality exposure can be continuously monitored. These data will be collected in conjunction with demographic and clinical variables usually studied in ALS and MS, in addition to lifestyle habits, such as tobacco exposure and physical exercise. Participants will be trained on the use of these sensors and on the mobile app developed by the project. For twelve months, besides the standard clinical management, our team will be monitoring participants’ sensor data and several variables collected through the mobile app (e.g., new symptoms, sleep quality and emotional distress).
Where are we now in terms of recruitment and operations?
After the improvement of the technical solutions, we already recruited 38 MS patients and 21 ALS patients that received Brainteaser app, Garmin watch and Atmotube sensors to monitor their health, mobility and the quality of air that surrounded them.