ACT Students Present at the 2024 International Conference on Medical Education Informatics (MEI 2024)

Four of our outstanding Computer Science students had the opportunity to showcase their research and scholarly work at the Medical Education Informatics 2024 (MEI 2024) International Conference, held in Thessaloniki on June 10-11. Under the expert guidance of Dr. Alexander Astaras, Assistant Professor in Computer Science at the American College of Thessaloniki (ACT) and a distinguished Research Associate in the Lab of Medical Physics, Dept. of Medicine (AUTH), Greece, these students demonstrated exceptional academic prowess and innovation.  

Final year Computer Science student Ariton Veselinoski has been performing research and development in Biomedical Engineering and Medical Informatics to create an automated scoring Computer Vision system for the Action Research Arm Test (ARAT). This test is an evaluation measure used to assess upper extremity performance (coordination, dexterity, and functioning) primarily in patients suffering from brain or spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, or recovering from stroke. The prototype system uses state-of-the-art Computer Vision algorithms customized with Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence running on an inexpensive personal computer and mobile phone. The automated scoring system enables doctors to follow their patients' rehabilitation or symptom-management progress daily, as opposed to being able to assess them whenever it is convenient for them to visit a healthcare professional. The impact of such a system would be more frequent, objective data available to doctors, who can more accurately optimize their patients' physical rehabilitation and pharmaceutical treatment.

Mr. Veselinoski's research has been performing this research towards his final year thesis at ACT Computer Science, under Dr. Alexander Astaras's supervision and in collaboration with the Medical School at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH). The research is described in a scientific paper abstract titled "A prototype automated version of the Action Research Arm Test (ARAT) for assessing upper extremity performance using the YOLO computer vision algorithm for real-time object detection," which has been accepted for oral presentation at the Medical Education Informatics 2024 (MEI 2024) international conference to take place in Thessaloniki on June 10-11th.

Third-year students Thomai Chatzidaniil, Tassos Nikiforidis, and Ina Ramo have been performing research in Biomedical Engineering and Medical Electronics to design, test, and calibrate a dermatological scanner prototype device (project DermaSense). This scanner is based on the acquisition of Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy data to help support Dermatological diagnosis and medical decisions, particularly in ambiguous cases of skin cancer. The device injects small amounts of electrical current across various frequencies through the skin. Then, an algorithm obtains the signal absorption spectrum and compares it to known patterns associated with particular types of skin disease.

Ms. Chatzidaniil, Mr. Nikiforidis, and Ms. Ramo have been performing their research under Dr. Alexander Astaras's supervision at ACT Computer Science, in collaboration with the Medical School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH).  They are expected to extend and continue their research collaboration towards their capstone thesis next year. Their research and development work is described in a scientific paper abstract titled "Sensor data fusion based on Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy for Dermatological Diagnosis" which has been accepted for oral presentation at the Medical Education Informatics 2024 (MEI 2024) international conference to take place in Thessaloniki on June 10-11th.

• The conference was hosted at the KEDEA Building, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. It was a joint effort between the School of Medicine of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece) and the School of Health Sciences of the University of Nottingham (UK), two renowned institutions in the field. MEI 2024 brought together researchers and practitioners in the multi-disciplinary areas of Medical/Health Education, patient education and engagement, Open Education educational technology and technology enhanced learning, Medicine/Health 2.0/3.0/4.0, Artificial Intelligence in Health Education, Simulation and new pedagogical approaches in Health Education and to provide a forum for the presentation and discussion of their research activities.