DOHA, May 16 (KUNA) -- The Italian capital city of Rome became the first city in the world to use a sophisticated Qatari technology that was invented by Qatar Science and Technology Park (QSTP), member of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science, and Community Development.

QSTP signed Monday an agreement with Rome City Hall that enables the latter to use a "RASAD" system for studying the health pattern in Rome with the study including diabetes, Alzheimer's, heart diseases and children's harmful behavior.

The agreement was signed QSTO Executive Chairman Dr. Tidu Maini, and Romes Minister for Technology and IT Networks, Dott. Enrico Cavallari, to use the RASAD Platform to perform an epidemiological study in the City of Rome.

RASAD is the ICT platform developed by QSTP, and it is powered to enable remote monitoring. QSTP designed and implemented the technological architecture of the platform.

RASAD was created so that a variety of different sensors can collect data and transmit it via wireless or wired networks to cloud-based servers that process the data providing real time customized graphical interfaces and services.

RASAD has been internationally recognized as a valuable tool to monitor patients suffering from different diseases. This collaboration between QSTP and the Rome City Council will cover two main domains: first monitoring childrens lifestyles in Rome as a tool to prevent chronic metabolic diseases (such as obesity, hypertension, diabetes, etc), and second remote monitoring of heart, diabetes and Alzheimer patients.

RASAD helps keep accurate and up-to-date records of physical activity of children and patients, which is vital to prevent and reduce treatment burdens of several diseases.

In addition to tracking lifestyle, RASAD is also able to directly monitor the behavior of the heart.

Heart patients will not be forced to spend a long recovery period in hospitals and can be followed remotely by their cardiologists, providing an enjoyable safe environment with their family at home.

Executive chairman at QSTP Dr. Tidu Maini said that the State of Qatar became capable now of exporting state-of-the-art technology to the western countries, while it was a mere importer in the past, noting that this is ushering in a new era thanks to scientific research conducted by QSTP.

Maini, also Science and Technology Advisor, commented, said that "Lifestyle has become the most important factor causing premature development of chronic diseases." By 2020 the World Health Organization predicts that 60-70 percent of all chronic diseases will be lifestyle related. Consequently, good health is important for everyone, especially children, whose growth, development and maturation depend on optimal physical, social and emotional well-being, Maini made clear.

Using RASAD to monitor physical activity or patients heart behavior will help the health authorities of the Rome City Council to prevent diseases, to make treatments more effective, and to define new health policies." The large amount of real time data will be sent by the RASAD platform in Rome using wireless technology to Meeza''s Cloud Computing Centre in Doha.

For his part, Dott. Enrico Cavallari, Romes Minister for Technology and IT Networks, said, "It is our top priority to try and improve Romes living conditions. We cannot find solutions for major problems without understanding their causes and without monitoring what leads to them. The technology used in the RASAD platform made that ambition possible. We do hope that the findings will help define new guiding principles in the Healthcare system." The analysis of the data collected will be carried out by the University Rome la Sapienza Faculty of Medicine and Hospital Sant Andrea and the outcome of these epidemiological studies will help develop better control and prevention means against these problems.

Rome, the capital of Italy, counts a population of over 2.7 million residents and is the 3rd most visited city in Europe.

The usage of RASAD is expected to be highly beneficial to both the population and health authorities since it is a concrete step towards personalized medicine, which is more efficient, provides faster responses to possible patients problems while supporting the policy of prevention and of health cost optimization.