Suffolk artificial intelligence experts help create new personalised heart treatments
Peter Brady, inset, chief executive of Stowmarket AI company Orbital Global (Image: Orbital Global)
A pioneering artificial intelligence (AI) company based in Suffolk is taking part in a new drive to help patients struck by the world's biggest killer - heart disease - by personalising their care.
Cardiovascular (CVD) disease is the most common cause of death worldwide – despite advances in treatment.
Now a group of 33 organisations – including Orbital Global in Stowmarket – have formed a Horizon Europe research consortium which aims to individualise care to heart patients.
The four-year iCARE4CVD project – led Novo Nordisk and Maastricht University – will involve the organisations working together to optimise heart patients’ care.
Using a single database of more than one million patients, AI experts will look for ways to shift treatment from a one-size-fits-all approach to personalised care.
They will look at early diagnosis and classifications, the urgency of the cases and predicting individuals’ responses to treatment.
Orbital Global will be harnessing its digital know-how – and its own patented AI technology – called VirtTuri – to help automate future treatments and improve prognoses.
The platform uses interactive “hyper-realistic” avatars to help patients to understand critical healthcare information.
Orbital Global chief executive Peter Brady said: “Cardiovascular diseases affect 620 million people across the world and account for around one in three deaths globally.
“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.”
Professor Hans-Peter Brunner-La Rocca, a cardiologist at Maastricht University who is coordinating the iCARE4CVD project
“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 one million subjects in a federated database, analysing them using artificial intelligence (AI) and prospectively validating personalised treatments during the second half of iCARE4CVD.”
iCARE4CVD has been granted €22 million (£19m) in funding from the Innovative Health Initiative (IHI) – run jointly by the European Commission and the European life science industry.
The project officially kicked off in October 2023 and will run until March 31, 2028.
Orbital Global secured one of just 192 grants awarded to British science programmes in 2023 by Horizon Europe – which funds scientific research in multiple fields.
Before Brexit, in 2019, the UK attracted 1,394 grants worth 959m euros (£835m) from the body.
This article was written by Sarah Chambers at the East Anglian Daily Times, to learn more visit:
www.eadt.co.uk/news/23924432.stowmarket-ai-company-joins-horizon-heart-treatment-drive/
