News
Alba Roca Ventura defends her doctoral thesis
Thursday 05 December 2024
Institut Guttmann neuropsychologist Alba Roca Ventura has defended her doctoral thesis, entitled Analysis of longitudinal multimodal data and innovative digital solutions for the study of trajectories in brain health and developed as part of the Barcelona Brain Health Initiative. The thesis was directed by Javier Solana Sánchez, biomedical engineer and Director of Research at the Institut Guttmann, and David Bartrés-Faz, Principal Investigator of the BBHI and Professor of Medical Psychology at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the UB.
The researcher received the highest qualification, excellent cum laude, thus obtaining the title of Doctor in Translational Medicine and Research from the University of Barcelona.
Specialised in data analysis and information technologies applied to health, Roca Ventura focused her thesis on investigating how innovations in information and communication technologies have the potential to improve the prevention of brain-related diseases, for example by using machine learning algorithms to identify lifestyle profiles predictive of the incidence of different pathologies, which could be used to deidentify lifestyle profiles predictivesign specific and personalised interventions. She has also collaborated in the validation of the Guttmann Cognitest digital tool, demonstrating that it can assess a subject's cognitive status with equal or greater reliability than traditional cognitive assessment methods, remotely and without the need for a professional to supervise. This would help overcome the limitations of traditional neuropsychological assessments, such as accessibility, excessive time and resources, allowing cognitive assessments to reach a wider population.
The thesis tribunal was comprised of Raúl Pelayo, neurologist at the Institut Guttmann; Adrià Tort, clinical neuropsychologist at the Alzheimer's Unit and other cognitive disorders at the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, and Isabel Sala, neuropsychologist at the Memory Unit of the Hospital de Sant Pau.
Solana Sánchez used the occasion to praise the ‘exceptional work’ of the PhD student, highlighting her ‘ease of acquiring research skills’. For his part, Bartrés-Faz also praised her speed in learning complex data analysis procedures, underlining the ‘relevance’ of her studies for the BBHI.
Specialised in data analysis and information technologies applied to health, Roca Ventura focused her thesis on investigating how innovations in information and communication technologies have the potential to improve the prevention of brain-related diseases, for example by using machine learning algorithms to identify lifestyle profiles predictive of the incidence of different pathologies, which could be used to deidentify lifestyle profiles predictivesign specific and personalised interventions. She has also collaborated in the validation of the Guttmann Cognitest digital tool, demonstrating that it can assess a subject's cognitive status with equal or greater reliability than traditional cognitive assessment methods, remotely and without the need for a professional to supervise. This would help overcome the limitations of traditional neuropsychological assessments, such as accessibility, excessive time and resources, allowing cognitive assessments to reach a wider population.
The thesis tribunal was comprised of Raúl Pelayo, neurologist at the Institut Guttmann; Adrià Tort, clinical neuropsychologist at the Alzheimer's Unit and other cognitive disorders at the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, and Isabel Sala, neuropsychologist at the Memory Unit of the Hospital de Sant Pau.
Solana Sánchez used the occasion to praise the ‘exceptional work’ of the PhD student, highlighting her ‘ease of acquiring research skills’. For his part, Bartrés-Faz also praised her speed in learning complex data analysis procedures, underlining the ‘relevance’ of her studies for the BBHI.