Desarrollo de un bioplástico comestible y compostable a partir de residuos de la industria alimentaria

The project pursues the use of waste from the Cantabrian food sector (cereal waste from the spirits industry and whey), in order to manufacture an edible, biodegradable and compostable plastic substrate, as an alternative to current plastic production, providing a solution in favor of the recovery of industrial waste. For the development of the edible plastic substrate, arabinoxylan and kefiran compounds were used, from cereal residues and milk whey, respectively. Several formulations were developed to create a pre-industrial prototype of the biocomposite for the edible plastic substrate, likewise, a search was made on the use of whey to obtain biofilm.An exploitation plan was drawn up that evidenced the need to sell 1,900 kg of bioplastic pellets per month to ensure the economic viability of the process. This production would have a unit cost of €15/kg, lower than the estimated sale price of €20/kg. Although it is estimated that the business profit margin would not be very high, the positive environmental impacts are good enough to consider the implementation of the developed solution.El proyecto persigue el aprovechamiento de los residuos del sector alimentario cántabro (residuos cereales de la industria de bebidas espirituosas y el suero de leche), con el objeto de fabricar un sustrato plástico comestible, biodegradable y compostable, como alternativa a la producción de plásticos actual, aportando una solución a favor de la valorización de residuos industriales. Para el desarrollo del sustrato plástico comestible, se partió de los compuestos arabinoxilanos y kefirán, provenientes de residuos cereales y del suero lácteo respectivamente. Se desarrollaron varias formulaciones para crear un prototipo pre-industrial del biocompuesto para el sustrato plástico comestible, asimismo, se realizó una búsqueda sobre el uso del lactosuero para la obtención de biofilm. Se elaboró un plan de explotación que evidenció la necesidad de vender 1900 kg de pellets de bioplástico al mes para asegurar la viabilidad económica del proceso. Esta producción tendría un coste unitario de 15 €/kg, inferior al precio de venta estimado de 20€/kg. Aunque se estima que el margen de beneficio empresarial no sería muy alto, los impactos ambientales positivos son suficientemente buenos como para considerar la implantación de la solución desarrollada

Monitoring chronic inflammatory musculoskeletal diseases mixing virtual and face-to-face assessments—Results of the digireuma study

Mobile health technology holds great promise for the clinical management of patients with chronic disease. However, evidence on the implementation of projects involving digital health solutions in rheumatology is scarce. We aimed to study the feasibility of a hybrid (virtual and face-to-face) monitoring strategy for personalized care in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and spondyloarthritis (SpA). This project included the development of a remote monitoring model and its assessment. After a focus group with patients and rheumatologists, relevant concerns regarding the management of RA and SpA were raised, leading to the development of the Mixed Attention Model (MAM), which combined hybrid (virtual and face-to-face) monitoring. Then, a prospective study using the mobile solution Adhera for Rheumatology was conducted. Over a 3-month follow-up period, patients were given the opportunity to complete disease-specific electronic patient reported outcomes (ePROs) for RA and SpA with a pre-established frequency, as well as flares and changes in medication at any time. Number of interactions and alerts were assessed. The usability of the mobile solution was measured by the Net-Promoter Score (NPS) and through a 5-star Likert scale. Following the MAM development, forty-six patients were recruited to utilize the mobile solution, of whom 22 had RA and 24 SpA. There were 4,019 total interactions in the RA group, and 3,160 in the SpA group. Fifteen patients generated a total of 26 alerts, of which 24 were flares and 2 were medication-related problems; most (69%) were managed remotely. Regarding patient satisfaction, 65% of the respondents were considered to have endorsed Adhera for Rheumatology, yielding a NPS of 57 and an overall rating was 4.3 out of 5 stars. We concluded that the use of the digital health solution is feasible in clinical practice to monitor ePROs for RA and SpA. Next steps involve the implementation of this telemonitoring method in a multicentric setting. Author summary There has been an exponential growth in the use of communication technologies to support diagnosis, monitoring or treatment in recent years. In rheumatology, the use of mobile applications, provides an opportunity to improve disease management through the collection of large amounts of data. This can be done using electronic patient-reported-outcomes (ePROs). Here, we present the development and implementation of a mobile solution and a hybrid care model. We found the use of ePROs feasible to monitor disease activity, flares and problems with the medication in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and spondyloarthritis (SpA). Our study provides new insights into the use of digital health technology in rheumatology, highlighting the importance of the involvement of both healthcare professionals and patients the implementation of mobile health in clinical practic

Monitoring chronic inflammatory musculoskeletal diseases mixing virtual and face-to-face assessments-Results of the digireuma study.

Mobile health technology holds great promise for the clinical management of patients with chronic disease. However, evidence on the implementation of projects involving digital health solutions in rheumatology is scarce. We aimed to study the feasibility of a hybrid (virtual and face-to-face) monitoring strategy for personalized care in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and spondyloarthritis (SpA). This project included the development of a remote monitoring model and its assessment. After a focus group with patients and rheumatologists, relevant concerns regarding the management of RA and SpA were raised, leading to the development of the Mixed Attention Model (MAM), which combined hybrid (virtual and face-to-face) monitoring. Then, a prospective study using the mobile solution Adhera for Rheumatology was conducted. Over a 3-month follow-up period, patients were given the opportunity to complete disease-specific electronic patient reported outcomes (ePROs) for RA and SpA with a pre-established frequency, as well as flares and changes in medication at any time. Number of interactions and alerts were assessed. The usability of the mobile solution was measured by the Net-Promoter Score (NPS) and through a 5-star Likert scale. Following the MAM development, forty-six patients were recruited to utilize the mobile solution, of whom 22 had RA and 24 SpA. There were 4,019 total interactions in the RA group, and 3,160 in the SpA group. Fifteen patients generated a total of 26 alerts, of which 24 were flares and 2 were medication-related problems; most (69%) were managed remotely. Regarding patient satisfaction, 65% of the respondents were considered to have endorsed Adhera for Rheumatology, yielding a NPS of 57 and an overall rating was 4.3 out of 5 stars. We concluded that the use of the digital health solution is feasible in clinical practice to monitor ePROs for RA and SpA. Next steps involve the implementation of this telemonitoring method in a multicentric setting