From the clinic to the living room: multisensory rehabilitation travels via fiber optics
After a stroke, Bruno Sarti continues neuro-visual rehabilitation from home with AvDesk: Fondazione Chiossone, Linari Medical, and Open Fiber in the second episode of #Connessi - The fiber that improves life.
There are innovations measured in megabits and others measured in regained independence. The story of Bruno Sarti, a patient of the Fondazione Chiossone social enterprise in Genoa, belongs to the second category and demonstrates how the two dimensions are now inseparable.
After a stroke, Bruno found himself living with a visual field deficit of neurological origin, a condition that deeply affects the most ordinary activities: reading, moving safely, and recognizing what happens in the half of the world that the brain no longer processes. His rehabilitation journey began in the clinic at Fondazione Chiossone and continued directly at his home, without interruptions and without losing contact with the clinical team.
Making all this possible is the collaboration between Fondazione Chiossone social enterprise, Linari Medical, and Open Fiber: a telerehabilitation model in which the medical device, the FTTH fiber optic network, and specialist remote monitoring work together as a single care system.
When therapy leaves the clinic
At the heart of the project is AvDesk, the medical device developed by Linari Medical for the assessment and treatment of neuro-visual and cognitive disorders in adults and children. AvDesk is a new-generation neurostimulator that integrates multisensory stimulation, cloud data processing, and artificial intelligence algorithms.
Installed in the patient's home and connected to the fiber network, AvDesk allows rehabilitation sessions to be carried out in the home environment, collecting data from each session in real time and making it available to specialists. Based on this information, the therapeutic path is updated and calibrated to the progress actually recorded.
The result is a paradigm shift: technology does not replace healthcare personnel, but extends treatment beyond the physical spaces of the clinic. The clinician continues to follow the patient and evaluate their evolution, while a significant part of the therapy can be carried out at home. For fragile, elderly people or those with mobility difficulties, this means fewer trips, greater continuity, and easier therapeutic adherence to maintain.
Technology, explained by those who built it
“It is a curved screen that emits visual and sound stimuli at specific frequencies. The result is that, after about 20 hours of treatment, patients regain their independence; some even return to driving. It is a medical device aimed at millions of children and adults who have a neurological visual deficit, such as macular degeneration or post-stroke deficits. A fundamental requirement is the presence of reliable and fast fiber optics.”
Caterina Stimola, CEO of Linari Medical
Continuity of care beyond the healthcare facility
For Fondazione Chiossone, which has been involved in visual rehabilitation and the inclusion of blind and visually impaired people for over a century, the project represents the natural extension of a person-centered care model.
“The experience developed together with Linari Medical and Open Fiber demonstrates how technology can expand the possibilities of visual rehabilitation, allowing us to follow patients even beyond the spaces of the healthcare facility.”
Simone Torretta, Director of Fondazione Chiossone
Fiber optics as a care infrastructure
The FTTH connection is not an incidental detail: it is the technical prerequisite that makes home therapy clinically reliable. The stable and continuous transmission of data allows specialists to verify the progress of the treatment at any time, with the same quality of information they would have in person.
“When we talk about fiber optics, we often think of browsing speed. In reality, cases like this show how FTTH networks can become a true enabling factor for healthcare innovation.”
Stefano Mazzitelli, Commercial Director of Open Fiber
Bruno's voice
At the center of it all, however, remains a person and their journey.
“After the stroke, I feared I had lost an important part of my independence. Today, I can continue rehabilitation directly from my home thanks to a simple-to-use system and a stable, fast connection. I can see the first improvements after just a few weeks, regaining confidence and motivation to continue the journey.”
Bruno Sarti, retired radiology technician
A replicable model
The one in Genoa is a trial, but with characteristics that make it easily scalable: a CE-certified medical device patented internationally, a fiber optic network progressively spreading throughout the national territory, and an organizational model that keeps the clinical center in charge of the therapeutic path.
This is exactly the direction indicated by digital health policies: bringing care to where the person lives, reducing geographical and economic distance as a factor of inequality in access to rehabilitation.
The story was told in the second episode of Connessi – The fiber that improves life, the format with which Open Fiber documents the impact of fiber optics on the lives of people and communities. In the following hours, it was picked up by numerous national publications, including Il Sole 24 Ore, and also found space on television, with a report aired on Sky TG24.
For Linari Medical, it is an important confirmation: the value lies not in taking therapy out of the clinic, but in extending its reach. The clinical center remains the director of the path; AvDesk becomes its extension into the patient's home.
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