Istituto Auxologico Italiano - AU (Co-ordinating Contractor - Italy)
 
  Contact person for the project: Prof. Giuseppe Riva.  
 

The role of the Istituto Auxologico Italiano (the Italian Auxological Institute) in the Consortium is to offer both coordination and management of the joint work and medical-psychological contents required for the development of the tools. In particular the Istituto Auxologico Italiano:
- will coordinate the project;
- will define the characteristics of the developed Eating Disorders module;
- will test its efficacy on both clinical and non-clinical samples;
- will define an integrated protocol for its use covering all the nutritional,
metabolic, endocrinological and psycological issues needed.
- will coordinate the development of the other VR modules.
The Istituto Auxologico Italiano is a scientific institute which was born as a Foundation in 1963. Its biomedical research is carried out mainly by means of the diagnosis and treatment of diseases which undermine harmonious psycho physical development, in relation to which it follows the course of various diseases over time and intervenes in terms of prevention, treatment and rehabilitation.

In 1972, it was recognized by the Ministry of Health and by the Ministry for Universities and Scientific and Technological Research as an "Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico - I.R.C.C.S." (an institutes that carries out research and care activities in the biomedical field).
  The Istituto Auxologico Italiano is now a private non-profit making organization, institutionally considered as falling somewhere between a private and public service. It has thus managed to combine the public service characteristics with the efficiency that is typical of private bodies, allowing a reduction in costs and appreciable results at the level of treatment.  
   
The Istituto Auxologico Italiano has three operating health care centers:
- Istituto Scientifico San Michele (Day-Hospital), Via Ariosto 13, Milan.
- Istituto Scientifico San Luca (Hospital), Via Spagnoletto 3, Milan.
- Istituto Scientifico San Giuseppe (Hospital), Via Cadorna 90, Piancavallo (Verbania).

The above mentioned centers cover an area of 185,000 m2 and have a total of 500 beds.

Its diagnostic and clinical activities, which are carried out in modern in and outpatient departments and supported by the continuous research activities of many experimental laboratories (Scientific Director: Prof. A. Zanchetti), have allowed the Istituto Auxologico Italiano to establish a consolidated presence in the field of nutrition (Laboratorio Sperimentale di Ricerche Nutrizionali, headed by Prof. F. Balzola), applied psychology (Laboratorio Sperimentale di Ricerche Psicologiche, headed by Prof. E. Scabini) and endocrinology (Laboratorio Sperimentale di Ricerche Endocrinologico-Metaboliche, headed by Prof. F. Cavagnini).

In particular, the common work of the different laboratories lead to an integrated approach focused on nutritional rehabilitation. The key issues of such approach are:
- the prevention/treatment of the diet-related chronic diseases, such as coronary heart disease, hypertension and type II diabetes;
- attention to the quality of life of the patient;
- the multidisciplinary approach involving researchers and clinicians from different disciplines.

The coordinator of the project is Prof. Giuseppe Riva, Ph.D a well known researcher in the virtual reality field with a strong background in the assessment and treatment of eating disorders. Riva was the coordinator of the successful EC Funded VREPAR - Virtual Reality Environments in Psycho-neuro-physiological Assessment and Rehabilitation - 1 and 2 projects (Telematics for Health Care - HC 1053 and HC 1055). Other key researchers involved in the project are Prof. E. Molinari and Dr. Monica Bacchetta. Dr. Bacchetta will be directly responsible for the clinical trials that will be held in the Istituto Scientifico San Giuseppe, Piancavallo (VB). 		 
 
Recent papers
  
  Riva G, Mantovani G. The ergonomics of virtual reality: Human factors in developing clinical-oriented virtual environments. In: Medicine meets virtual reality. The convergence of physical & informational technologies: Options for a new era in healthcare, J. D. Westwood, H. H. Hoffman, R. A. Robb, D. Stredney Eds., 278-284, Amsterdam: IOS Press. 1999.

Riva G, Wiederhold B, Molinari E (Eds). Virtual environments in clinical psychology and neuroscience: Methods and techniques in advanced patient-therapist interaction. Amsterdam: IOS Press. 1998.

Riva G. Virtual environments in neuroscience. IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine 1998; 2: 275-281.

Riva G. Virtual reality in psychological assessment: The Body Image Virtual Reality Scale. CyberPsychology & Behavior 1998; 1: 37-44.

Riva G (Ed.) Virtual reality in neuro-psycho-physiology: Cognitive, clinical and methodological issues in assessment and rehabilitation. Amsterdam: IOS Press. 1997.