RTU MIREA reviewed trends in the development of inclusive design in Russia

On November 27-28, the III National Conference with international participation “Inclusive Design - Opportunities for All” was held at MIREA - Russian Technological University.

Scientists, practitioners, experts, university professors and students united on a single platform to discuss current problems, opportunities and trends in the development of inclusive design in Russia in modern conditions. The conference is being held at RTU MIREA for the third time; this year it brought together more than 150 participants representing 27 organizations.

In the course of the conference, experts discussed issues relating to the creation of a universal environment, the development of regulatory requirements for the use of artificial intelligence in the development of inclusive design. There was also talk about the development of science-based proposals for the practical implementation of the concept in our country.

The sections “Accessible environment and principles of inclusive design” and “Industrial design focused on everyone” worked most actively. A number of reports were devoted to the requirements for the educational space in schools, kindergartens and universities for people with disabilities and adolescents with disabilities. The participants exchanged best practices in teaching activities, discussed solutions and issues of development of pedagogy in this area. Youth Day was dedicated to the involvement of future specialists in solving the problems of inclusive design - the poster section “Design through the eyes of young people”. The exhibition “Technical means of rehabilitation” was held at the Youth Techno-Coworking Center of RTU MIREA.

“Healthcare requires using advanced and promising technologies, which can be developed and implemented only through cooperation and joining the efforts of major institutions and departments. Six months ago, while visiting the University and its mega laboratories, we found developments, including unique ones that we need now or will need in the future. Today our Center and the University are developing several areas of cooperation, including information technologies, the results of which will be presented in the near future,” noted Tigran Gagikovich Gevorkyan, Deputy Director for the Implementation of Federal Projects of the N.N. Blokhin Federal State Budgetary Institution of the Ministry of Health of Russia.

Representatives of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science, the Russian Ministry of Health, the Moscow Department of Health, the Russian Academy of Sciences, the largest Russian medical institutions and research institutes shared their opinions and experience on the conference issues.

The discussion proved to be large-scale and multifaceted: companies participating in the Skolkovo project, various organizations joined the discussion: Association “AURA-Tech”, Regional public organization of disabled people “Perspective”, Association for the Promotion of Integrated Business Safety and others. The higher school was represented by MIREA - Russian Technological University, Russian State University of Arts and Industry named after S.G. Stroganov, Crimean Federal University named after V.I. Vernadsky, Khawarizmi University Technical College and other universities.

“Uniting representatives of different directions in the field of inclusive design on a single platform is extremely important for the progressive development of technologies that make the lives of the majority of people easier. Improving technological processes in medicine every day improves the quality and availability of medical care, and therefore helps to preserve the health of the nation. I am confident that our joint projects with MIREA - Russian Technological University will significantly improve the provision of medical care to patients with vision pathologies,” emphasized Olga Aleksandrovna Savochkina, Chief physician of the Federal State Budgetary Institution Research Institute of Eye Diseases named after M.M. Krasnov".

At the conference, MIREA - Russian Technological University, shared its 10 years of experience in the development of digital healthcare. The work started with the opening of the Department of Medical Information Systems on the basis of the National Medical Center for Pediatric Oncology, Hematology and Immunology named after Dmitry Rogachev of the Russian Ministry of Health. Next, the University continued to develop and implement specialized information systems together with experts in the field of cellular technologies and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Currently, the University is training personnel in the field of artificial intelligence in healthcare and cooperates with industry leaders in the Russian Federation, leading national medical research centers and pharmaceutical companies.

“We note significant progress in digital health training. The importance of long-term cooperation with the university has led to the creation of digitalization systems for processing large amounts of medical data and AI systems for the life support of the bone marrow transplantation service in the country,” emphasized Alexander Grigorievich Rumyantsev, State Duma deputy, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, scientific director of the Federal State Budgetary Institution “National Medical Research Center for Pediatric Oncology, Hematology and Immunology named after Dmitry Rogachev" of the Russian Ministry of Health.

Over the past several years, the University has been actively cooperating with the Center for Diagnostics and Telemedicine of the Moscow Department of Health. The parties are implementing a joint master's program in Data Mining, which provides in-depth training for specialists in the development of specialized software and artificial intelligence services. Previously, a unique joint program for additional training of specialists in modern information technologies in healthcare was launched.

“Moscow has been digitalizing the healthcare system for more than 10 years. One of the important areas of this work is the introduction of computer vision technologies into medicine. The implementation of the project makes it possible to create and develop a market for artificial intelligence services. We understand the importance of training in-demand specialists in information technologies, since today it is impossible to imagine the development of metropolitan healthcare without the use of neural networks. This year, together with MIREA - Russian Technological University, we have started training and advanced training of specialists in modern information technologies in healthcare. As part of our joint activities, an additional professional development program “Aspects of development and testing of artificial intelligence technologies in healthcare” has been implemented, which has no analogues and is being launched for the first time,” commented Anton Vyacheslavovich Vladzimirsky, Deputy Director for Scientific Work of the Moscow Center for Diagnostics and Telemedicine.

Exchange of experience, presentation of best practices, communication with partners, strengthening of existing ties and new prospects for cooperation - all this is the result of the conference.

The meeting participants emphasized the positive effect of uniting representatives of different directions in the field of inclusive design on one platform and recommended continuing this experience.

The organizers are confident that the next conference will become an important milestone towards solving problems in the field of development of inclusive design and will help increase the level of training of highly qualified personnel for the development of this important knowledge-intensive area.

“The past conference has become an important event not only in the field of digitalization in healthcare, but also benefited higher education and various businesses. The joint work showed the vectors of movement that we must adhere to in order to contribute to the development of such current trends as artificial intelligence and inclusive design. Our University, for its part, is extremely interested in their further promotion, especially in maintaining partnership with industrial enterprises,” summed up the results of the conference S.A. Kudzh, RTU MIREA Rector.

Conference materials and presentations of participants will be posted on the conference website.