About us:
Phase one: diabscore.ir, please find the relevant information on the website.
Phase Two: homatab.ir
Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death and disability in Iran and around the world. If associated risk factors are not controlled, further complications are expected. Self care education and adopting healthy lifestyle in cardiac patients can prevent comorbidities and complications. One of the low-cost strategies to control cardiovascular disease is online screening and education, online care navigation, and providing virtual counseling.
In this regard, with the support of the National Institute for the Development of Health Research (NIMAD) and with the cooperation of researchers at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, the website and online screening tool www.diabscore.com was launched in 2019.
The project “Use of artificial intelligence in creating and developing of education and virtual counseling for prevention, diagnosis, treatment and self-care of heart patients’’ (Homatab), with the support Ahmadi-Roshan grant under the auspices of the National Elite Foundation has begun in January 2022. The project leader is Professor Masoud Mirzaei, a full professor and the project coordinator is Dr. Mahdieh Ghanbari Firoozabadi, a post-doc fellow of Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences in Yazd.
Due to the high prevalence of cardiovascular diseases and relevant disorders, providing virtual screening, education and monitoring for a healthy lifestyle is essential for heart patients and the community to prevent heart disease requires provision of physical space in various health centers and training of experts; this has a very high cost. The cost of providing this online tool and the health gadgets needed for data transfer between the user (patient or community) and the monitoring/ services provision centers is far less than establishment of new physical centers. The preparation of the online education tool (HOMATAB) is based on the scientific principles of learning by doing and hands-on training of multidisciplinary team (professors and students). Using HOMATAB can lead to fill the gap in community education and health promotion, especially in difficult to reach areas where do not have access to health centers. The physical center in charge of the mentioned service is located in Yazd- Iran and is responsible for treating patients in southeastern Iran Besides, 40% of the patients admitted to this center are non-indigenous people who receive basic lifestyle education and due to the distance, it is not possible to reach these patients to follow up and continue the education. Using the tool (HOMATAB) is being prepared can prepare the infrastructure for educating the community about other chronic non-communicable diseases (cancers, lung diseases, etc.) and even infectious diseases in the future.
Software Preparation Steps
- Preparing scientific materials based on the latest available guidelines and requirements of stakeholders, to design online tools of education and virtual counseling for heart disease prevention and self-care.
- Empowering the online education tool designing team (Teachers and students) and virtual counseling for prevention, diagnosis, treatment and self-care of heart disease.
- Designing online education tools and virtual counseling for prevention, diagnosis, treatment and self-care of heart disease.
- Introducing the beneficiaries of online education tools and virtual counseling for prevention, diagnosis, treatment and self-care of heart disease.
Software Physical and Technical Specifications
- Virtual education and counseling of cardiac disease prevention using cardiac disease risk assessment and related risk factors, online virtual counseling on diet, physical activity, psychological health, smoking cessation and social working.
- Virtual education and counseling for early diagnosis of cardiac disease using interventional/non-interventional tools and consultation with nurses and related specialists.
- Virtual education and counseling for early treatment of cardiac disease and primary emergency measures using interventional/non-interventional tools and consultation with nurses and related specialists.
- Virtual education and counseling of cardiac patients using virtual online counseling on nutrition, physical activity, psychology, smoking cessation and social working.
- Providing primary and secondary cardiac disease prevention services (a healthy food menu based on nutrition counseling, links to supervised service centers, determining level of physical activity based on cardiac or musculoskeletal problems, and introducing treatment/non-treatment centers under protocol for physical activity, online consultation with doctors and related experts).
Contact information:
email: homatab.study@gmail.com
Instagram: homatab_yahs@
Website: www.diabscore.com | www.homatab.ir
Tel: +98-35-31602166 | +98-35-31602162 | +98-35-31602161 | +98-35-35258354
Address: Yazd Cardiovascular Research Centre, Afshar Heart Center, Jomhouri Blvd. Yazd, Iran
Imad Project (Early Diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease through Sensory Evaluation using Artificial Intelligence):
Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia, accounting for about 60-70% of dementia cases. In 2019, it was recognized as the sixth most prevalent disease in Iran, with a 65.5% increase over just a decade. Alzheimer's disease manifests through the gradual loss of memory and cognitive functions, along with impairments in areas such as language, spatial thinking, executive function, and sensory functions like vision and smell. Early diagnosis is crucial for the treatment and management of the disease. This project aims to design, develop, and test the sensitivity and specificity of a hardware and software specially designed for the early screening of Alzheimer's disease.
In the first phase, a systematic review has been conducted to assess sensory impairments related to vision, hearing, smell, and touch in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. In the second phase, the corresponding hardware will be developed by a team of electronics engineers, telecommunications experts, and computer game developers. In the third phase, using the Bayesian network method, the relevant software will be developed in collaboration with specialists in neurology, psychiatry, psychology, artificial intelligence, data science, computer science, and chronic disease management, along with machine learning implementation. In the fourth phase, the developed hardware and software will be tested on 400 individuals, including 200 patients diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer's disease and 200 control subjects. The sensitivity and specificity of the device will be evaluated. Patients and control participants will be selected from two large ongoing studies conducted by the project team, named the Ehsan Clinical Trial and the Yazd Health Study.
Ultimately, this project will open up a new frontier in the identification of other neurological and psychiatric disorders, which could potentially serve as the basis for dozens of similar research studies on other neurological and psychiatric diseases both in Iran and worldwide.
EHSAN Study is a Phase III clinical trial that began in 2020 with the launch of its first round of studies. The project was approved in 2019 with support from the National Institute for the Development of Medical Sciences Research (NIMAD), in collaboration with Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences and the Yazd Cardiovascular Research Center. The study focuses on collecting, processing, and analyzing data to assess the effects—and potential side effects—of the drug Synaptazine in individuals aged 50 and older diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease.
The protocol of study is available from: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-79616-4
The study was designed in 2013, and after obtaining ethics approval, the enrollment phase was conducted in 2014-2015. Annual telephone follow-ups have been conducted from 2015 to the present. The study profile was published in IJE in 2018 (attached). Five book volumes have been published in over 2000 pages, including:
- Anthropology and Society of Yazd
- Daily Life of Yazd Population (En summary attached)
- Health Care and Disease Patterns in the Province of Yazd-Iran
- Atlas of Health in Yazd
- Food and Nutrition of Yazd Population
Also two additional volumes are in preparation:
a) Substance Use in Yazd Population
b) Genetics and Lab Test References of Yazd Population (500 pages)
Over 160 peer-reviewed papers have been published, and the study's h-index is 19: link to Google Scholar
The repeated measurement phase was conducted from 2022-2024 on 3,500 randomly selected participants from the enrollment phase. A population-representative biobank called ZIBA was developed over the last decade, including biological samples such as blood, urine, saliva, hair, and nails of the ten thousand participants. Both passive and active follow-ups on the 10,000 participants were conducted using telephone follow-ups and data linkage with e-health records.
The geolocation of all participants was recorded, and the Geo-YaHS study was initiated for GIS analysis (Volume 4 of the YaHS book details this study). Over 150 medical and postgraduate students have used YaHS data for their research projects/theses.
In collaboration with Switzerland, a simple seven-language online screening tool was developed for non-invasive screening of diabetes mellitus: http://diabscore.ir
Using data from the YaHS database (over two million records so far) and artificial intelligence (AI), an Android application has been developed to screen the population for DM, IHD, and various cancers non-invasively called Homatab. Homatab also provides a smart interactive lifestyle modification tool to promote health, including over 200 healthy dishes for diet modification and an active life guide. The Iranian Elite Foundation supported this project. See some details here: https://www.aparat.com/v/h7RzN
YahS is a collective effort of a team of fifteen researchers and health staff.
Further details is available from: