In Valle del Cauca they inaugurate the first virtual reality laboratory - Cali - Colombia

To advance in inclusive education, Valle del Cauca becomes a promoter of the inauguration of the first Latin American virtual reality laboratory for children with visual and hearing limitations; in addition to being the space that will provide the installation of an international scientific colloquium.

The opening of the laboratory and the realization of the conservatory initiates the monday 28 February at the Institute for Blind and Deaf Children of Cali, in the second stage of the collaborative project between Colombia and Quebec (Canada): “Narrative, virtual reality and sensory deficiencies”.

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The research is made up the Institute for Blind and Deaf Children, the Université de Sherbrooke de Québec, the Autonomous University of Bucaramanga and the Universidad Javeriana Cali. The team will be responsible for generating educational spaces for children with visual and hearing disabilities.

It should be noted that the initiative was born for the first time in Colombia, but unlike the other countries that had already been working in favor of education with virtual realityin this case, in the capital of the Valley this proposal reaches children with sensory limitations, for the evaluation and cognitive intervention of his training.

It is stipulated that the investment of this study has a cost of 80,000 dollars, that is to say around 320 million pesos, which will be financed by the Quebec Society and Culture Research Fund.

The experts define the project as a space to take advantage of the wealth of new technologies in augmented reality and develop forms of narratives that facilitate learning to read and write.

“The production of protocols for the virtual reality scenarios will be made for the staging of the stories, the evaluation and development of the processes and the educational intervention,” said doctor Pedro Pablo Perea, general director of the Cali institution.

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In this way, through four stages they hope that the project will be successful.

“The creation of digital multisensory prototypes, creation of stories for children, staging of 5 stories with the help of virtual reality and the validation of stories through the DELPHI method (experts who validate indicators to measure the impact of research )”.

In addition, they have stipulated the use of adequate equipment to fulfill the function of the experience, with glasses and hearing and visual aids.

“Lenses that allow viewing holograms and supports to magnify the tactile experience of attendees,” added Perea.

“Lenses that allow viewing holograms and supports to magnify the tactile experience of attendees”

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Additionally, the director explained that the technological methods will be used for the evaluation of the processes that have to do with the development of the discernible abilities.

“The recognition of objects, abilities to orient oneself in space and coordinate eye or hand movements, for example: to build figures with Legos or blocks”, he mentioned.

Likewise, a neuropsychological intervention program and educational studies on neurovisual disorders will begin to be implemented, where Colombia will be the first promoter of such a task.

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An international scientific colloquium

The event that brings together specialists and interdisciplinary researchers will take place during the 2, 3 and 4 of March at the Javeriana University of Cali.

The purpose is to disseminate knowledge about narrative, the role of art and the use of virtual reality in education, in order to study the rehabilitation of children with sensory limitations and all kinds of brain disorders.

There will be the participation of Canadian, Spanish and Colombian researchers, specialized in visual arts, virtual reality, computer science, neuropsychology, speech therapy, occupational therapy and education.

Those who are interested in attending can do so in person or virtually with prior registration, through number 3218200, extension 8266.

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CALI

A registry will expose the reality of cancer in Spain

The Center for Biomedical Research Network (CIBER) together with the Spanish Association Against Cancer (AECC) have agreed to establish a centralized information system on cancer in Spain. Its objective is to obtain a complete vision of this disease throughout the State

The CIBER in collaboration with the Spanish Association Against Cancer (AECC) will launch this registry, called the Cancer Epidemiological Information System (SIEC), which will systematize and unify the main epidemiological indicators of cancer in Spain.

In this way, rigorous and official data on this disease can be offered to make decisions at the level of the autonomous community, or even province.

The portal is planned to be available by the end of 2022.

Since the arrival of the coronavirus in March 2020, the world has been involved in momentous political, social and economic changes. However, other diseases, including cancer, continue to rise.

Updated and complete information

In the note in which the CIBER and the AECC recently announced this agreement, it was stated that “the SIEC will facilitate epidemiological monitoring, unify sources that are difficult to access, and build official indicators that have not been available until now.”

This cancer registry will work from data from Spanish population registries that are accredited by the International Agency on Cancer.

The user will be able to find statistics on epidemiological risk indicators of a geographical, temporal and demographic nature on the incidence, mortality, survival and prevalence of cancer.

This will be completed with informative information on risk and protective factors for the different types of tumors. In addition, a glossary on epidemiological surveillance will be included to understand the most important terms about cancer.

From these data, researchers will be able to establish the survival rate of cancer types over time or possible geographical variations, among other things.

Marina Pollán, director of the National Center for Epidemiology of the Carlos III Health Institute and CIBERESP, points out that “in Spain there is no single national cancer registry, although there are various initiatives in this regard that provide information -such as the Spanish Network of Cancer Registries (REDACAN) or the ARIADNA epidemiological information system of the National Epidemiology Center of the ISCIII”.

This expert adds that “it is necessary to have a quality information system at a national level with updated, integrated and as disaggregated as possible information on the burden of cancer in Spain”.

plan to prevent

María José Sánchez, coordinator of the Cancer Surveillance Subprogram at CIBERESP, explains to EFEsalud that “knowing these statistics is key to being able to make decisions, act quickly and avoid territorial inequalities in health protection.”

“This portal will allow us to know the temporal trends of prevalence and survival. We are going to see if this survival for the types of cancer improves over time or if there are geographical variations between the different Autonomous Communities. If we observe important differences, another series of studies would have to be considered to see the reason for these variations in the indicators”, he affirms.

Diego de Haro, responsible for the program at the Spanish Association Against Canceradds that it is a “very innovative project that will also help to develop a plan for the different benefits and services that public administrations have to provide”.

In Spain, as in other European countries, there are 14 consolidated registries on the incidence of cancer. These are known as population-based tumor registries, as is the case with the ARIADNA project.

However, from the CIBER they detail that “all these registries are provincial and until now only between 20 and 30% of the Spanish population are being registered in a real and direct way”.

For this reason, the new portal will make it possible to collect updated data that can be extrapolated to the entire Spanish population and make precise estimates for each territory.

A cancer registry open to all

The new page will be available to the scientific community and the general population. Its purpose is that any patient, relative or interested person can access without special permissions and learn the reality about cancer.

Diego de Haro recalls that this is a “fundamental aspect, a platform accessible to everyone and with the main indicators”.

Although the individualized databases cannot be downloaded nor can a researcher upload their information, it can be used to schedule new analyses. This will allow you to see the indicators according to age ranges or sex.

Image of the Salud Sin Hoaxes website

The cancer pandemic

Especially in the first wave of the coronavirus screening programs of cancer stopped their activity due to the health crisis.

Also, many research projects and laboratories had to close, thus experiencing delays in many cases.

Added to this was the fear of the general population to go to the doctor due to the virus, which made it difficult to make cancer diagnoses.

María José Sánchez points out that “we must be clear that there is a cancer pandemic because more cases are being diagnosed, so it continues to be a public health problem and we must not get lost.”

However, he specifies that “the health system is making an effort to cover all cancer patients so that their diagnosis and treatment have no consequences.”