Artificial Intelligence (AI) research project aims to personalise prevention and treatments for heart failure

Over the next four years, these organisations will work together to better understand cardiovascular diseases and optimise future prevention and treatment. By creating one database consisting of data from more than 1 million patients and using artificial intelligence, partners will look for new strategies to shift from a one-size-fits-all approach to personalised care.

Cardiovascular (CVD) disease is very prevalent worldwide with enormous socio-economic impact. It is still the most common cause of death, despite significant advantages in therapy. Due to population ageing and unhealthy lifestyle, the number of Europeans suffering from CVD currently exceeds 85 million and is still on the rise. This underscores the critical need for better care pathways to reduce the impact of CVD.

To improve patient outcomes, iCARE4CVD aims to improve four aspects of current care: 1) early diagnosis and classification into clinically meaningful subgroups; 2) risk stratification defining urgency for intervention; 3) prediction of individual treatment response; and 4) inclusion of outcomes based on patient’s perspective.

Orbital Global will harness its pioneering digital health research capabilities and its world-leading spin-out AI technology, VirtTuri® to help automate future treatments and improve prognoses. VirtTuri is a patented, regulatory compliant AI clinical informatics platform that deploys interactive hyperrealistic avatars to significantly enhance patient understanding of critical healthcare information. Proven to elevate user engagement and recall of complex healthcare information, the VirtTuri AI platform will embed within the clinical interface, providing user friendly real-time clinical information and interaction with patients.

Peter Brady, CEO of Orbital Global, comments: ‘Cardiovascular diseases affect 620 million people across the world and account for around 1 in 3 deaths globally.[i] Despite individual differences in risk factors and symptoms, there is currently a standard treatment plan for all patients. Our vision is to deploy VirtTuri within this project, to better understand patients’ individual needs and configure tailored treatments in real time for them, ultimately saving lives.’

Prof Hans-Peter Brunner-La Rocca, coordinator of iCARE4CVD and cardiologist at Maastricht University and Maastricht University Medical Center+ (Maastricht UMC+) adds, ‘As doctors we are mostly bound to a one-size-fits-all approach while treating our patients with CVD. Our mission however, within iCARE4CVD, is to personalise diagnosis and management of CVD to improve both outcome and patient satisfaction. We will achieve this by collecting data of more than 1 million subjects in a federated database, analysing them using artificial intelligence (AI) and prospectively validating personalized treatments during the second half of iCARE4CVD’.

The voices of people at risk for and those living with CVDs will be at the heart of iCARE4CVD during the entire project, by using patients’ insights, opinions and wishes. They will help to translate the findings into a more patient-centric and equitable narrative around CVD and its multiple impacts on individuals from both a social and medical perspective.

iCARE4CVD will also investigate health outcomes in people with type 1 diabetes at risk of developing CVD, explains Dr Jeanette Soderberg, Director at JDRF. ‘With the help of such a large European collaboration, we will investigate the impact of novel therapies typically used in type 2 diabetes on clinically important outcomes in the traditionally underappreciated but growing population of type 1 diabetes at risk. With the help of biomarkers, we will also be able to determine who’s in most need for such intervention,’.

iCARE4CVD has been granted €22 million in funding from the Innovative Health Initiative (IHI) - a joint undertaking of the European Commission and the European life science industry. The project officially kicked off its activities across Europe in October 2023 and will run until 31 March 2028.

Horizon Europe funds scientific research in fields ranging from terminal diseases to climate technology to food and energy security. Against the odds, Orbital Global secured one of just 192 Horizon grants (with a total value of €22 million) awarded to British science programmes in 2023 – a significant decrease in research grants prior to Brexit when, in 2019, €959 million was allocated across 1,364 grants in the UK.