SEMINAR: Contemporary Measurements of Lung Mechanics � What are they? What do they tell us?

Speaker: Professor Raffaele Dellacà was awarded a Masters degree in Information Technology Engineering from the Politecnico di Milano in 1997. He obtained a PhD degree in Bioengineering in 2001 on the assessment of respiratory mechanics by opto-electronic plethysmography and forced oscillations. His postdoctoral studies were undertaken at the Biomedical Engineering Department at the Boston University, Boston, USA and the University of Liverpool. He has been an Associate Professor at the Department of Bioengineering of the Politecnico di Milano since January 2011, teaching within the field of Biomedical technologies.

Professor Dellacà’s main research interest is in respiratory physiology, particularly respiratory mechanics, linear and non-linear modelling of respiratory system mechanical properties, and the development of new technologies for the analysis of respiration, mechanical ventilation and anaesthesia. Professor Dellacà collaborates widely with leading international researchers around the globe, and his research is sponsored by public agencies, foundations and industry. He is co-founder of Restech, a spin-off company that develops innovative devices for lung function testing in adults and children. He has authored 63 papers published on international peer-reviewed journals, 11 book chapters and 12 patents.

Seminar: Historically, measurements of lung mechanics were characterized by sophisticated procedures requiring specific skills and environments to provide accurate single-data-point assessments. This approach allows a deep understanding of lung mechanics and how the respiratory system works. However, it has limited application when the objective is to approach the complexity of the interactions of the respiratory function with the dynamical variability of exogenous factors and how these factors influence the evolving progression of diseases and of the respiratory control system. Fresh approaches, technologies and analyses for characterizing the dynamics of lung mechanics are now opening new opportunities for improved understanding of the complexity of the act of breathing and for developing new interventions to restore impaired (disease) conditions.